Sandman
by Vampire Ifurita
Summary: In order to find the infamous assassin Sandman, the FBI dispatches one of its own, Uzumaki Naruto, to investigate one of its many suspects, Sabakuno Gaara. What will happen between these two men from different worlds? What do they have to hide? NaruGaa
1. Chapter 1

_If: Yeah yeah, another story. I know I should write/finish Fever Pitch and Jeep Song, but this idea's stuck in my head. With any luck I'll be able to do this and quickly, but well._

**Important!**

This story is an AU. There is Yaoi (NaruGaa)! And there will be drama! I do not vouch for authenticity.

I don't own Naruto, I'm not creative enough for that.

**Vocab:** Junta : in which the government is controlled by a small group of military officials_  
_

* * *

_It should have been raining_, he idly thought as he gazed at the scene before him. It was too much to take in; he couldn't begin to process the feelings running through him. It had happened so quickly. One moment he was floating on cloud nine, in Paris with his new husband of one day, the next he was staring down at the lifeless body of his ex-best friend as his husband stood over the cooling corpse, gun in hand. It was surreal. He couldn't remember how he had gotten here, what had led to this disastrous consequence. All he had been doing was his job. He had been doing his job, and had inadvertently fallen in love with the man he had been watching, the man who had murdered his old friend.

His hands were shaking, he could barely breathe, and his stomach was rolling. All he could see were the two men covered in blood before him. One was unspeakably cold and the other was dead.

His husband turned to look at him, his beautiful green eyes brimming with tears. He could see every emotion that passed through those eyes: the guilt, the sorrow, the intense love. It left him speechless. Yet he couldn't do anything as the man he loved more than life lifted the gun and pressed it to his chest and pulled the trigger.

---------------------------

Four months earlier

---------------------------

A blond man knocked impatiently on the door of the apartment. He was tall, but not tall enough to tower over everyone around him. He was a well muscled man with bright blue eyes that were full of life and three scars on each cheek. Wearing a pair of loose black pants, an orange collared shirt, a black tie with orange swirls and a protective vest, the man pounded on the door once more.

"Sabakuno-san open the door! We would like to talk with you!" he shouted through the locked door. Signaling to his team of police backup, he backed away from the door so that they could break through the door. Pressing his back against the wall, he watched as two of his police escort broke down the door. As they flooded into the small living space, the blond man heard something and signaled for the team to stop. Walking down a small hallway, following the sound of running water, the blond came to a stop in front of a closed door, through which the sound of water was the loudest. Reaching out he tested the doorknob to see if it was locked and found that it was not. Turning the knob quietly, the blond peaked through the door before slamming it open and pointing his gun at the man in the shower.

"Get out of the shower!" the blond said calmly. The man in the shower turned slowly behind his tinted glass doors to face him. While on the outside the blond seemed calm, on the inside he was drooling over the good looking man barely hidden behind the glass doors. One of the doors slowly slid to the side and a pale arm poked out to grab a towel from the rack on the wall beside the shower. As the man behind the glass pulled the towel into the shower he also turned off the water. The blond watched as he wrapped the towel around his waist and then opened the sliding glass door all the way, revealing him to his unexpected visitor.

The blond could only stare at the gorgeous man before him for a moment. Blood red hair was plastered to his skull and water dripped from it, following all the sharp angles and muscles down the man's torso to his towel. Passive green eyes stared blankly at him and pale skin twitched as the man waited for the blond to tell him what to do next. The blond though, was now admiring the man's shapely legs. He shook his head to clear it, and hardened his eyes to the man before him.

"Step out of the shower," the blond commanded. The red head did so.

"I am presuming you are Sabakuno Gaara, are you?" the blond asked. The red head, otherwise known as Gaara, nodded.

"And who are you, breaking into my home, pointing a gun at me, and ordering me around?" the red head asked, his deep voice momentarily distracting the blond with its inadvertent sexiness.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, FBI," the blond said. The red head seemed almost surprised, but Naruto couldn't tell, Gaara had no eyebrows.

"Well then, FBI-san, what can I do for you?" Gaara asked calmly. Naruto almost scowled, this guy was just too cool. He had broken into his apartment, his team had probably messed it up considerably, and this guy was just as cool as a cucumber.

"We would like to ask you a few questions, if you don't mind Sabakuno-san," Naruto said through partially clenched teeth.

"We?" Gaara asked, and Naruto could almost see his forehead tick in anger. Naruto nodded.

"My police team and I," he clarified. Gaara's mouth twitched into an almost-scowl.

"Please tell me you didn't destroy my apartment just to ask me a few questions," Gaara nearly growled. Naruto had the grace to look a bit sheepish.

"I can't guarantee that my team didn't," Naruto said, lowering his gun and putting it back in its holster. Gaara full out scowled.

"And let me guess, no one's going to fix it but me, right?" he accused. Naruto bowed his head slightly. "Do you people even have a warrant?"

Naruto reached into his back pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. Gaara reached out and snatched it from the blond. Unfolding the piece of paper he took his time reading what was written on it, his scowl becoming deeper.

"This is all circumstantial bullshit," he growled, throwing the paper back at Naruto, having crushed it into a ball. Naruto scowled back at the red head and began to un-crumple his precious piece of paper.

"It may be all 'circumstantial bullshit' but it was enough for us to come here and enter forcefully if no one answered the door," Naruto replied. He sighed heavily as he re-folded his paper and put it back into his pocket, if his superiors saw what had become of that paper they would have killed him.

"… You broke into my home?!" Gaara growled, his hands clenching at his sides. Naruto winced.

"Well… no one answered the door…" he trailed off as Gaara stomped past him and down the hallway and into his living room. The team had already started to mill about, moving things around, looking through books and albums. Some of the officers had opened the hall closet and were pushing around the items of clothing hanging there.

"Get your filthy hands off my stuff!" Gaara roared, pissed off beyond reason. Naruto walked passed the pissed red head and motioned for the team of officers to exit the apartment.

Looking around, Naruto winced at the sight of the room. The once pristinely kept space was now rumpled beyond recognition. Cushions were askew, the carpet was bunched, books were everywhere, pictures were flung around the room having been taken out of their albums, and clothes were on the ground instead of their proper hangers. Gaara had started to straighten his mangled living room and Naruto, feeling entirely guilty, moved to help him.

"I'm sorry," Naruto said as he straightened some pictures on the wall and pushed plants back into their rightful places on shelves. Gaara snorted and began to hang up his coats in his closet.

"Somehow I'm not believing that," he snapped. Turning to level a glare at the blond man now straightening his rug, he continued. "You cops do this sort of shit all the time. This isn't a Junta you know, it's a freaking democracy and I feel that my rights have been violated."

Naruto sighed. Every time the police screwed up it was a huge violation of rights. He had just come here to ask a few questions, but due to the nature of the person this Sabakuno Gaara was supposed to be, he had needed to come with a team of backup. Running a hand through his short spiky hair, Naruto set his mouth in a grim line.

"I truly am sorry Sabakuno-san, but we have reason to believe that you might be the Sandman, and thus I was required to enter your home with a backup team," Naruto said. Gaara sneered at Naruto.

"Me? The flipping Sandman?" Gaara let out a short bark of derisive laughter. "You people should know that I have alibi for each and every incident involving that man."

Naruto nodded his head, trying not to look at the way that Gaara's towel was slipping down his narrow hips. "We are well of your alibi, Sabakuno-san."

"Gaara. And I should think that all of that would prove that I didn't do a god damned thing," Gaara snapped. He marched over to his couch and collapsed onto it. Propping his feet on his small glass coffee table he leveled a stare at the blond FBI man in front of him.

"The FBI is investigating anyone who could possibly be the Sandman, alibi or not," Naruto replied to the snappy Gaara. "Phone calls can be faked, Saba-… Gaara. We just have to make sure, so don't be surprised if someone is around keeping tabs on you."

Gaara scowled. "Its bullshit, that's what it is."

"It may be bullshit, but its legal bullshit. Now, if you wouldn't mind?" Naruto gestured to an arm chair to the right of the couch. Gaara waved his hand dismissively. Naruto nodded his thanks and sat in the chair. "May I ask you a few questions?"

"Do I have a choice?" Gaara asked tersely. Naruto shook his head in the negative. "Fine. Ask away FBI man."

Naruto twitched. "Where were you the night of January the 21st 1993?"

Gaara just stared at Naruto. "… Do you honestly expect me to remember that? That was 14 years ago. I was only 11 at the time."

Naruto just looked at Gaara before blinking slowly. "You're 25?"

Gaara just stared blankly at Naruto. "…Yes."

"Huh," Naruto replied. "I didn't think anyone as young as you would be under investigation. The Sandman's been around since 1988…"

"Yeah… I know," Gaara said sarcastically. "Because as a six year old I was very good at killing."

Naruto just glared at Gaara for a moment. Thinking for a moment, which happened to be a very rare thing for him even if he was FBI, he wondered what the hell he was even doing here in the first place. Why would the higher ups be investigating some guy who had been six at the time the murders had started?

"Sorry Saba-… I mean, Gaara. But I need to ask you these questions regardless of your age when the murders started. They expect answers from me," Naruto said apologetically. Gaara rolled his eyes.

"Whatever," Gaara eloquently replied. Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Do you remember where you were or what you were doing March 3rd 2005?" Naruto asked. Gaara ran a hand through his wet hair, clearly thinking about his answer. Naruto was surprised to find a tattoo for the kanji of love on his forehead.

"I believe that I was at a graduation party for some of my college friends," Gaara replied. Naruto made a mental note of what the red head said; his mind was like a steel trap… when he forgot his pen and pad.

"Do you know what happened that day, outside of your party?" Naruto asked, curiously. Gaara shook his head.

"Even though I don't know, I'm sure that someone died, since that's the only reason you would be asking me what happened on such a specific date. Especially considering you people are taking into consideration that I could be the Sandman. I assume he took out someone on that day?" Gaara asked, but Naruto was too stunned from hearing so many words come from such a pretty mouth to really understand. Gaara deadpanned at the blond before him. Had the FBI really sent such a numbskull to investigate him? It seemed like the blond was always getting distracted just by looking at Gaara, and it was starting to unnerve the red head.

"Huh?" Naruto said after a moment of silence. He couldn't help it, this Gaara just oozed sex appeal and Naruto was having a hard time ignoring the natural beauty of the man. "Yeah… there was a dignitary in Peru that was assassinated by the Sandman that day."

Gaara nodded. Naruto scratched his head as he tried to remember his other questions.

"How about last Saturday?" Naruto asked. Gaara thought about it for a moment, crossing his legs.

"Last Saturday was spent in a board meeting for my company. It lasted from 9am to 4pm. After that I went to dinner at Biagi's and then headed back into work for a conference call with the executives from our sister companies in China, England and Japan," Gaara replied after a moment. Naruto nodded.

"Who was murdered last Saturday?" Gaara asked out of curiosity.

"A drug lord in Columbia," Naruto replied. "I can't believe that you don't keep up to date on the Sandman. He's the biggest hit man of this decade. He's wiped out more than 40 people that we know of, and that's just in the last nineteen years. Just imagine how many people he'll kill over the span of his life if he's not caught!"

"But it seems to me like the people he's killing aren't exactly 'good' people, so why is it so bad?" Gaara asked. Naruto gave him a look that clearly said 'what are you, nuts?'

"It doesn't matter if they're good people or bad, what matters is that he killed them," Naruto replied. Gaara furrowed his brow, though Naruto couldn't tell.

"Is there anything else?" Gaara asked, wanting to get out of his towel and into actual clothes.

"Yeah, two more questions," Naruto said. Gaara just sighed but nodded his head. "Where were you April 17th?"

"Um… I don't remember. I might have been visiting my siblings in Arizona… I go there every once in a while," Gaara replied, honestly not remembering where he had been that day.

"Ok… and one more," Naruto said, making a mental note of Gaara's reply. "What are you doing this Friday?"

Gaara just deadpanned at the blond FBI agent. "… Are you quite done now?"

Naruto pouted. "Yeah."

"Then you can leave," Gaara said, pointing out his doorway on which his door was propped. "And fix the door while you're at it."

Naruto scowled but stood from his comfy chair. "Don't be surprised if we meet again Sabakuno-san."

Gaara rolled his eyes. "That was either a very bad line, or a pathetic excuse for a warning. Now get out of my home before I throw you out."

Naruto pouted again but started to the door, making sure to shake his ass a little more than usual. Turning at the door, he looked back at the now standing red head and smiled. "See ya around… Gaara."

And with that he moved the door aside and left, placing the door back over its frame. Signaling to his team, who had apparently stood around waiting for him, he started out of the apartment complex.

Gaara meanwhile just stood in the center of his living room, staring at the door the FBI man had just gone through. "Jackass."


	2. Chapter 2

If: This sucker's gonna keep going man... I'm determined to finish it before I lose interest! ... anyways... another chapter! Yay!...

**Warnings:** nothing really, just plot development

**Review replies:**

blueinu : Heh, it wasn't that bad of a cliffie! Considering some other cliffies I've seen and written, that was nothing! But I'm glad that you like my humble little story! And mucho gracias for the review! I love reviews!

**Vocab:** Existentialism - a philosophical view that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual in an indifferent/hostile universe, where existence is unexplainable and stresses freedom of choice

Theseus's Ship - a philosophical discussion on identity.

* * *

"Sabakuno-san!" an annoying voice, which Gaara was loathe to admit that he knew quite well, shouted over the din of the Starbucks. Scowling, and wondering idly if he could slip out before the blond got to his table, Gaara just glared at the blond making his way over. Taking a sip of his black coffee with an extra two shots of espresso, Gaara sighed. The bond FBI agent, who Gaara almost remembered the name of, had been "coincidentally" bumping into him for the past week. If Gaara went to the local market to pick up groceries, he would find the blond suddenly following him around and asking him all sorts of annoying questions. If he was at the movie theatre seeing a new flick (Gaara loved slashers and good mystery thrillers) the blond agent would plop down next to him and then follow him back to his apartment. It was starting to get on Gaara's nerves. So as the blond man sat down next to him in the crowded Starbucks he just snapped. 

"Why the hell are you stalking me?" he snapped. The blond grinned at him.

"I told you that someone would be watching you!" he exclaimed cheerfully. "I just so happened to get that job!"

"… I think I would have rather had one of those desk-jockeys following me around. You're practically a pervert," Gaara replied, sneering at the other man. The smile on the blond's face cracked a bit, but he just closed his eyes and forced his grin to get larger.

"Aww… Gaa-chan's so mean!" he exclaimed. Gaara twitched.

"Call me that again and I really will kill you," he said through clenched teeth. Grabbing his drink he moved to stand up, but a hand grabbed his elbow.

"I'm sorry Sabakuno-san," the blond said contritely. "It's just that I can't help but tease you, you're so uptight. You need to let loose a little more, laugh a little."

Gaara gingerly sat back down in his chair. "There's nothing to laugh about. This world is a bleak place."

The blond grinned. "That may be so, but we only have one life to live, and what kind of life would it be if we just went around moping all the time? If you don't have fun now, when will you ever?"

Gaara just stared at the blond for a moment that had been the deepest thing he had heard from him. Narrowing his eyes suspiciously, thinking that maybe there was an ulterior motive behind this sudden insight (like asking him out, which the blond seemed to do every time they "bumped into" each other), Gaara took in the words.

"Isn't that somewhat of a bleak point of view coming from someone as happy as you?" Gaara asked. The blond smiled brightly.

"I suppose, but I just can't believe in eternal happiness and an afterlife," he replied. Gaara cocked his head to the side.

"Why not? It seems to me that it would fit your personality to believe in something like that instead of this existentialism," Gaara commented.

The blond pondered this for a moment, his face scrunching up and his hands going behind his head. "Well, I guess that on my journey through this life I have come to believe in things which seem true to me. Contrary to popular belief, I'm not all smiles and happiness, I know the darker side of life and it has had its effects on my outlook on life and everything after."

Gaara nodded. "I rather think I may have taken you at face value."

"Face value?" the blond asked. "You mean you thought up until now that I was an air headed blond who had no real thoughts in his head?"

Gaara's face was strategically blank, a move he had perfected over the years. "Maybe."

The blond scowled. "I can be just as philosophical as the next guy! I didn't get this job because I'm so freaking hot, not that you've cared to notice."

Gaara suppressed the urge to chuckle at the irate blond who was sulking and drowning his "sorrows" in his frappaccino. He hated to admit it, but there had to have been a reason the blond had gotten into the FBI, it's not as if they let anyone in there.

"I apologize for being so narrow minded," Gaara said, hoping to placate the blond.

"I'll accept your apology on one condition," the blond said mischievously. Gaara rolled his eyes, here it came, the inevitable invitation to go out with the blond. "You have to willingly hang out with me this weekend."

Gaara blinked; rather surprised the blond hadn't asked him on a date. He raised a skeptical brow, an expression totally lost on the blond though since Gaara didn't have any eyebrows.

"Just hang out? No invite to a date?" Gaara asked. The blond grinned lecherously.

"Why? Do you _want_ to go on a date with me? Because that could totally be arranged instead of hanging out," the blond said quickly. Gaara's eyes went wide. He had totally fallen into that trap. Grumbling under his breath Gaara shook his head emphatically.

"No! No dates," he said. The blond deflated a bit and looked almost sad.

"Your loss," he finally said. Gaara blinked. "Alright then! Your apartment, Saturday at 11am."

"Why my apartment? The last time you were there you destroyed it!" Gaara said, annoyed at the presumptuous blond.

"I didn't destroy your building! It was the police guys! Besides, I know where your apartment is, you don't know where mine is," the blond said. Gaara rolled his eyes. "Besides, this way you can't get out of it."

Gaara scowled. The blond was almost smart. There was no way Gaara would be able to get out of this.

"Now then, why don't we keep this conversation philosophical and talk about the concept of Theseus's Ship?" the blond suggested. Gaara snorted.

"Alright. I believe that if all of the ship was replaced then the ship that was all new parts wouldn't be Theseus's Ship. Theseus's Ship had the original planks, not the new ones. If all the old boards were in a pile then that would be Theseus's Ship," Gaara said. Naruto nodded his head as if he was understanding.

"Well I think that even if you replaced all the boards it would still be Theseus's Ship. Its just like people, you aren't the same person you were when you were 5, your personality and even your appearance have changed, but you're still you. I wouldn't be able to say that 5 year old Naruto was Naruto, but that Naruto now is not Naruto at all but an entirely different person," the blond (_Naruto_, Gaara reminded himself) said. "I am Naruto, no matter how many changes I go through."

-------------------

"_Does he suspect anything?"_

"No."

"_But you should still be careful."_

"Of course. I know that he's not an idiot, if he's from the FBI then he's smarter than he looks."

"_Of course."_

"Besides, he _is_ the perfect alibi. No matter what I could have an FBI agent on my side and he'll be able to prove that I didn't do a damn thing. He might even get me off the 'suspects' list."

"_Don't get too over-confident. Over-confidence could lead to your downfall."_

"I'm too paranoid to get over-confident."

"_While I'm not arguing with you on that point, I still think you should be careful. Don't get attached."_

"Attached? To that idiot? I don't think that's a possibility."

"_You never know, people have a way of working their way into your life. You should remember the last time someone wormed their way into your life."_

"… That will never happen again."

"_You can't say that for sure, and you know it. You have no control over what your heart feels. I should know, I'm in love with a lazy bastard."_

"Heh. That's for sure."

"… _Just be careful, would you?"_

"I'm always careful."

"_I know. But always be aware of what's going on between you and the FBI man. Tell us everything, and if you start to get in too deep we'll help you get out, ok?"_

"… Fine, though I still think you're being paranoid."

"_Better to be paranoid and safe than carefree and in trouble."_

-------------------

At 11am on the dot there was a banging on his door (which had been fixed thanks to the nice land lady and her husband, _not_ the police who had broken the door in the first place) and Gaara rushed to open it, having a feeling that the brash blond would knock down his door again if he didn't answer and quick. As he pulled the door open he was greeted by a mildly surprised blond.

"I didn't think you would open the door so quickly," Naruto said, smiling happily and maneuvering his way into Gaara's apartment. Gaara grumbled something about pushy blonds and closed the door.

"I didn't want to have to put my door back on its hinges again," Gaara retorted. Naruto's grin only brightened.

"You mean you were just that excited to se me?" the blond said sidling up to the red head and slinging an arm around his shoulders. Gaara just looked at the blond before pushing the arm off of him.

"Of course not, I was fearing for the safety of my home," Gaara said stalking back to his couch and plopping down in it. Naruto followed suit, sitting next to the sulking red head.

"I was thinking that we could play some games!" the blond exclaimed after a moment of awkward silence. Gaara deadpanned at the blond.

"I don't own any games…" he said. Undeterred, the blond grabbed his backpack, which Gaara had only just noticed, and unzipped it. Gaara stared, with a mixture of awe and horror, at the contents of the bag.

"I brought my PS2, and some card games I love!" the blond exclaimed, happily making his way over to Gaara's TV and unpacking said PS2.

"… Why do I want to play these games when I know I'm going to lose?" Gaara asked. Naruto gave him a quick grin before going back to his meticulous set-up.

"Because in all actuality, I'm not that great at most of the games I picked. I have this thing… I can't button mash, which puts me at a horrible disadvantage since I try to do all the combos and strategize while my opponents just press buttons and take me out," he admitted, finally finishing his set up. "I brought Soul Calibur 3, Madden, Katamari Damacy, Lego Star Wars 2, and the Warriors."

"… The Warriors?" Gaara asked. Naruto grinned at him.

"Yes, the Warriors. They made a game based on the movie, based on the comic, based on the Greek tale," Naruto clarified. Gaara just blinked at him.

"… Good movie," the red head finally said. Naruto beamed at him happily.

"It was! Mindless gang violence is the best!" he said, popping a disk into the PS2 and grabbing the controllers. "How do you turn the TV on anyway?"

Gaara reached for a remote and clicked power. "Which video channel is it on?"

Naruto put a hand to his chin. "Two I think."

Gaara pressed a button twice and the Playstation configuration screen popped up. Naruto muttered an 'oops,' handing the controllers to Gaara before moving back to the PS2 to tweak something. As the loading screens started, he plopped back into his seat next to Gaara.

"If you liked the movie, you should like this," Naruto said, grabbing one of the controllers from Gaara. "It starts a few weeks before the actual movie, but it gets to the good stuff eventually."

"… So what am I supposed to be doing?" Gaara asked, looking at the controller in his hands. Naruto sighed and looked at the perplexed red head.

"You put your hands like this…" Naruto said, maneuvering Gaara's hands into position. "You'll move your character with the left analog stick" Naruto demonstrated. "And you attack with the buttons on your right. For the first part of the game you'll also be tagging walls, which isn't as easy as it seems. You'll hold down a button on your right and trace a pattern with your left analog."

Gaara just stared at the blond, whose entire explanation had gone in one ear and out the other. Naruto sighed, hanging his head.

"You'll get the hang of it, and if not we'll try something easier, like Soul Calibur 3," he said, selecting two player mode from the menu.

Half an hour, lots of cursing, and several attempts at throwing the controller across the room later, Naruto decided it might be a good idea to switch games. Gaara was fuming, he had no idea of where he was going, what he was doing and he couldn't tag a wall to save his life. Grumbling about inaccuracies and cheating AI, the red head pouted. Unfortunately, Gaara's little temper tantrum had caught the blond's attention, who was now staring at him and trying to suppress a grin.

"… What's your problem?" Gaara asked, pouting even more. Naruto couldn't hold back the grin anymore and started to laugh.

"You're just so cute!" the blond exclaimed. Gaara frowned, sticking out his bottom lip even more. Naruto's grin just grew.

"I am _not_ cute!" Gaara exclaimed and threw a throw pillow at the blond, who was switching discs. The pillow hit him right on the side of the head. Turning very slowly and locking a blank stare at the red head, Gaara could only gulp as Naruto advanced on him.

"… I'm… sorry?..." Gaara managed before the blond pounced on him. "Get off of me!"

"No can do Gaara," Naruto retorted, unsuccessfully trying to make himself comfortable in Gaara's lap. Gaara, however, was having none of it and was squirming rather viciously in his attempts to get out from under the blond. "I must administer the punishment for your crime!"

"What?!" Gaara exclaimed, suddenly very worried about his virginity. Naruto smirked, which in all actuality didn't look different from one of his grins aside from the evil intent in his eyes.

"You must be punished for hitting me with a pillow!" the blond exclaimed and attacked Gaara's sides. Gasping, having not expected this reaction, Gaara squirmed even more and even squeaked as Naruto found one of his ticklish spots.

Naruto seemed to be enjoying the sounds and reactions he was getting from poor Gaara, if the wide fox-like grin on his face was anything to go by. Gaara was trying valiantly to keep the laughter in, but wasn't having the best of luck, if the sounds escaping his mouth were anything to go by.

"Stop! **Stop!**" Gaara finally exclaimed. "I give! You win! I'll never hit you with a pillow ever again!"

Naruto's grin grew and he got off of the exhausted red head. "That will teach you to throw a pillow at me."

Gaara just glared at Naruto as he nodded his head serenely. Looking at the TV screen Gaara was surprised to see a new game's loading screen.

"Soul Calibur 3?" Gaara asked suspiciously. Naruto just grinned happily.

"You'll like it, it's a button mashing fighting game," the blond replied. Gaara just shrugged.

"… Fear my button mashing skills," Gaara finally said after he kicked Naruto's ass in his first match. Naruto glared.

"I'll get you for that!" Naruto exclaimed. "Vengeance will be mine!"

Gaara rolled his eyes and knocked Naruto's character out of the ring.

"Hey! That's not fair! I wasn't paying attention!" Naruto screeched. Gaara smirked.

"That's your own damn fault, not mine," he retorted, and thus the war began.

-------------------

"Hello?"

"_Next Thursday, Jamaica._"

"… Will you be leaving the information in the usual place?"

"_Yes, all the information you need will be in the envelope._"

"Then I will get back to you on whether I'll do the job or not as soon as I get the information."

"_Very good._"

The receiver clicked as the phone was hung up.


	3. Chapter 3

If: Still going strong! Woo!

**Warnings: **Got nothing still, unless you count swearing.

**Review replies: **HanChan - Thanks so much for the review! Thank you for the nice words. No one's ever said that I have good pacing or character interaction or all that. I've got no idea how to respond to it. SO... Thanks? But anyway, I'm glad you're enjoying it.

**Vocab:** IMF - the International Monetary Foundation, the IMF is an organization of 185 countries working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth and reduce poverty (straight from the IMF's official site)

* * *

Naruto was surprised to see Gaara leaving his apartment Tuesday afternoon. The red head had a small backpack and was trying to hail a cab. Naruto decided to take the chance, started his car and pulled up to the curb. Rolling down a window and grinning beatifically, Naruto motioned for Gaara to get into the car. Seeing Gaara scowl, Naruto motioned quicker. 

"Come on! It's not like I'm not gonna follow you anyway, so you might as well get a ride from me!" he pointed out. Gaara just grumbled and begrudgingly pulled open the car door, tossing his backpack into the back seat and settling into the passenger seat. "Where to?"

"… Airport," Gaara replied. Naruto gave him a suspicious look before pulling away from the curb and into traffic.

"Why are you going there?" Naruto asked bluntly. Out of the corner of his eye he caught the red head rolling his eyes.

"… To catch a flight. Why else would I be going to the airport? To watch the people?" Gaara retorted sarcastically. Naruto barked out a laugh and turned up his stereo, loving the song that had come on. Gaara just looked at him as if he were crazy as he started to speak the words.

"… I said, 'babe, what is the deal? You're noticing all these other chicks… maybe you're a lesbian.' She looks at me and says 'I wish I was a lesbian.' Now at that point I wanted to say 'you mean you wish you _were_ a lesbian, because grammatically…' But I let it slide, I didn't want to ruffle any feathers, but that sentence, that retort 'I wish I was a lesbian' Kinda stuck in the old lobo's mind, kinda gestated there for 7-8 minutes, and this tune popped out!" Naruto said before breaking out into song with the singer. Gaara was staring at him as if whatever mind he had was gone, and since his music was so loud and he was trapped in traffic, the people around him were looking at him the same way. As Naruto got even more into the song, Gaara brought his hands up to his face and tried desperately to hide, sinking low in his seat so that the people next to them wouldn't see him. Naruto grinned at his cute childish-ness, knowing that the people stuck next to them had already seen the red head and that all of his hiding was in vain.

As the song changed to something mellower, and not even close to funny, Naruto looked over to his companion to see that he wasn't budging from his position of below the window. Chuckling, he leaned over and poked the red head, who only gave him a long-suffering sigh.

"Are you always like this?" Gaara asked. Naruto laughed and nodded vigorously, taking a left turn at the light.

"Yup! I like to have fun!" he proclaimed. Gaara sighed and pushed himself back up into an upright position.

"You call that perverted song fun?" Gaara asked incredulously. Naruto nodded emphatically. "That wasn't fun… it was embarrassing."

"But it was funny!" Naruto exclaimed, not getting why Gaara didn't get that it was funny. Gaara sighed again. Naruto was turning onto the expressway now, about halfway to their destination.

"By the way Gaara, where exactly are you going?" Naruto asked, suddenly all business. Gaara, having gotten used to these sudden changes in demeanor, just looked annoyed about his purpose.

"I have to go visit my siblings in Arizona," he said begrudgingly, not seeming to enjoy this visit at all.

"Why do you sound so… angry, no that's not right, upset? No, that's still not it… annoyed! That's the word I'm looking for. Why do you sound so annoyed by it?" Naruto asked. Gaara scowled.

"My sister's good for nothing boyfriend proposed. And now she wants me down there to congratulate her," Gaara sneered.

"Doesn't sound like you like the guy," Naruto commented. Gaara barked a short derisive laugh.

"That's an understatement," he replied, seething on the inside. "He's a worthless pile of crap. All he does is complain about how 'troublesome' everything is. I'm surprised he even has a job, since the only thing he enjoys is staring up at the sky."

"He he he… sounds an awful lot like a friend of mine from high school," Naruto said, chuckling. Gaara glared at him. "Sorry, I've just gotten used to people like that is all."

"They've been dating for four years now…" Gaara muttered. Naruto spared an astonished look to the red head as he turned off the expressway and onto his exit. "I think she could do so much better than that lazy jerk."

"Yeah, but you can't help who you fall in love with, and you most certainly can't help who someone else falls for," Naruto replied sagely. Gaara scowled.

"Yeah… but why did it have to be _him_?" he asked. Naruto smiled at his companion. Gaara had certainly started to open up to him since their little weekend of hanging out. Naruto was hoping that Gaara considered him a friend, at least, because Naruto most certainly had almost an unnatural attachment to the red head.

As the blond pulled up to the airport and pulled into a parking space, determined to hang around the red head as long as possible, he followed the other man inside. Gaara would spare him a look every now and then, probably wondering why the other man was following him, but he just accepted that he wasn't going to get rid of the blond any time soon.

"Ne, Gaara, how long are you going to be there anyway?" Naruto asked as Gaara got in line to pickup his ticket.

"A few days, I think," Gaara replied. On the one hand, he was happy to be getting away from the energetic blond FBI agent, but on the other hand, he really didn't want to deal with his sister's boyfriend… fiancé. As he got his ticket he took a glance at the blond and noticed that he was surprisingly not happy. Grabbing his stuff and starting off to get in line to pass through security, Gaara faced the blond. Scuffling his feet for a second, and wondering why he was even stopping in the first place, Gaara scowled and turned back around, determined to ignore the blond and just leave.

"Gaara! Wait!" Naruto shouted before Gaara could get back in line. Turning, Gaara barely had time to register what was going on before he was swept into a bear hug. The blond spun him around once before settling him back on his feet. Dizzy, and more than a little confused, Gaara didn't have a chance to react before Naruto bent down and kissed him square on the lips. Eyes wide as saucers, and too stunned to do anything, Gaara just stood there as Naruto quickly pulled back, blushing as red as his companions hair.

"… Something for you to think about on your trip," Naruto muttered before guiding a still stunned Gaara back into line to go through security. Hoping that the red head would snap out of it soon, Naruto quickly dashed before said red head came to his senses and tried to kill him.

As Naruto exited the airport and started the trek out to his car, his cell phone rang. 'Rehab' was playing and Naruto knew that it was his best girl, Sakura calling. Smiling and pulling his phone out, he flipped it open.

"Hey Sakura!" Naruto said, happy that his old friend was calling.

"_Hey Naruto_," Sakura replied.

"Why are you calling? Not that I mind, of course, I'm just curious is all," Naruto said, fishing his car keys out of his pocket.

"_I was just wondering what was going on in your life… if you had done something stupid and made a move on this suspect you have a thing for, stuff like that,_" Sakura replied calmly. Naruto sputtered for a moment and dropped his keys. Laughing nervously while picking up his keys, Naruto tried to formulate a response in his mind.

"Now why would I do something as stupid as that?" was the response he finally settled on. He could hear Sakura scoff on the other end of the line.

"_Naruto, when haven't you been that stupid?_" she asked.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted, outraged. "I'm not an idiot! Just because I act like one doesn't mean I am one!"

"_I know Naruto, but sometimes you just don't think before you act,_" Sakura replied, trying to placate the irate blond.

"You can say that again," Naruto said, pouting as he reached his car, thinking of the stupid thing he had just done a little while ago, involving one sexy red head.

"… _You did something stupid involving that suspect you keep talking about, didn't you?_" Sakura asked, hitting the nail on the head.

"He has a name Sakura… he's not just a suspect," Naruto replied, finally giving up his farce that everything was alright.

"_Fine then, what's his name?_" Sakura asked.

"Gaara. Sabakuno Gaara," Naruto replied, his voice taking on a bit of a dreamy quality.

"_Damn… you sound like you're smitten already. He must be one hot piece of man-flesh to get you this worked up this quickly,_" Sakura said. Naruto groaned and hit his head against the roof of his car before opening the door and getting in, resting his head against the steering wheel.

"Trust me, he's something special alright," Naruto said, absently pressing his fingers to his lips, remembering the feel of those silken lips that had been pressed to his not that long ago.

"_So what stupid thing did you do this time?_" Sakura asked, startling Naruto out of his reverie.

"Um… well, you see…" Naruto stuttered, not being able to tell his best friend how he had most likely messed up in the worst way possible. Gaara had just been starting to warm up to him, and now he had gone and kissed him, and now he would probably never speak to him again.

"_Wow, you must have really fucked up,_" Sakura commented. Naruto pouted. "_If you can't even tell me it must be pretty bad._"

"He left for Arizona today… which reminds me, I need to make sure he actually went to Arizona and when he gets back I need to call up his family and see if he was really there…" Naruto started to mumble.

"_Naruto! What did you say? You're mumbling again!"_ Sakura shouted.

"Sorry Sakura-chan!" Naruto apologized. "I said that he left for Arizona today."

"_So? What's the big deal about him leaving for Arizona?_" Sakura asked, exasperated.

"Well… he's gonna be gone for a few days, and I really just want to keep him to myself…" Naruto started to mumble again.

"_Naruto! Just tell me what the fuck you did or I will personally fly up to Massachusetts and kick your ass!_" Sakura shouted, clearly frustrated with her friend.

"I kissed him!" Naruto shouted before clapping his free hand over his mouth. There was silence on the other end of the line. "… Sakura-chan?"

"… _You kissed him?_" was her reply.

"… Yes…" Naruto admitted.

"_Damn! I can't believe I missed that!_" Sakura cursed.

"… You know if Lee ever knew that you were such a closet pervert concerning two guys making out…" Naruto started before he was interrupted.

"_Don't you even start! Lee knows that I have a fetish for two guys going at it!_" Sakura interjected. Naruto twitched. "_I happened to get lucky enough to find a guy who doesn't frankly care, and is open to having a threesome with another guy."_

Naruto grimaced. "I so didn't need that mental image…"

Naruto could practically hear Sakura's smirk through the phone. "_You're welcome to join us any time Naruto-kun._"

"Eww! I don't want to be part of you sex life with your husband!" Naruto exclaimed, thoroughly freaked out. "I just want Gaara!"

"… _You are so smitten its not even funny_," Sakura said after Naruto's second admission. Naruto groaned in frustration. "_You've got it bad for this guy._"

"Tell me about it… but now I've totally messed up, I shouldn't have kissed him. I probably scared him for life… the poor guy was all out of it, staring into space with his mouth hanging open, totally shocked. I don't even know if he made it onto the plane… I kinda dashed out of there, since I didn't want him to kill me," Naruto said dejectedly.

"_Well, the fact that he didn't just punch you when you did kiss him is a good sign_," Sakura said, ever the optimist when it came to Naruto's love-life. "_I mean, if he didn't like it, or didn't want it or whatever, he would have strangled you at the first sign of you making a move. It sounds to me like you might just have a chance, but don't get your hopes up._"

Naruto smiled. "Thanks Sakura, you always know what to say to cheer me up. I'm sure you're right!"

"_Of course I am! I am the outside perspective after all!_" Sakura exclaimed. "_But Naruto… you need to remember that he's still a suspect. He still could be the Sandman._"

"I know, but I highly doubt that he's the Sandman. There's no way that a six year old could start a career as a hit man," Naruto reasoned. "Besides, he's got a solid alibi for every day there's been a murder."

"_I know, and you're probably right, but I just want you to be careful, I don't want to have a repeat of what happened with Sasuke_," Sakura said. Naruto instantly darkened at that name.

"Damn that teme… I still can't find that bastard. No matter how many leads I get, he's always one step ahead of me. I can find Itachi no problem, but the second I try to look for Sasuke, he's gone," Naruto grumped.

"_I'm sorry Naruto, I know how much it means for you to find him_," Sakura said.

"It's alright Sakura-chan. I have other things I can focus on now. The Uchiha case is not my primary case anymore, the Sandman case is," Naruto replied. "Well I should probably go. There's a guy honking at me to get out of my parking space… he doesn't seem very happy."

"_Alright Naruto, take care of yourself, and good luck with Gaara!" _Sakura said.

"Bye Sakura," Naruto said and then hung up. Glaring out his rear-view mirror, Naruto cursed. "Alright already! I'm moving, I'm moving. Geeze."

-------------------

Naruto was bored out of his mind. Here he was, sitting in his apartment playing solitaire on his computer while listening to the news on the TV. And just to prove how bored he really was, Naruto _never_ played solitaire. Naruto didn't even like the game, but there was nothing else to do when there was nothing on TV, there was nothing he wanted to play on his Playstation, and there was no Gaara to go bug, the red head had been gone for two days now. Just the thought of that red haired beauty caused Naruto to feel so many different conflicting emotions, but he just sighed. There was no use in pondering all these feelings that he was having, it would just make him miss the red head and realize some things that he just didn't want to face right now. But just as he was about to win his very first game of solitaire the news caught his attention.

"_This just in! Breaking news from Jamaica! The Sandman has struck again!_" Naruto could only listen and watch in awe. "_Today the body of John Evans, one of the Executive Board members of the IMF was assassinated in his hotel room in Jamaica. John Evans was 43, married with two children. He was working with the Jamaican government to help the country with its debt. The IMF has loaned approximately…"_

Naruto absently picked up his phone as it rang, still listening to the report on the TV.

"_Uzumaki! The Sandman has struck again! Where is your suspect?_" one of Naruto's superiors shouted in his ear.

"Sabakuno Gaara is in Arizona with his siblings, celebrating his sister's engagement," Naruto replied absently. The newscaster still prattling about the IMF's involvement with Jamaica.

"_How do you know that he's there for sure?_" his superior demanded.

"I called his home yesterday and talked to him myself. And today I left a message on both his home machine and cell phone," Naruto replied.

"_If he didn't pick up today than he could be in Jamaica!_" Naruto's superior shouted.

"I highly doubt that sir. I called at ten o'clock last night," Naruto replied absently, the news program now showing the Executive's body being removed from the hotel.

"… _Uzumaki, if you called at ten here then it would have only been 7 there!_" Naruto's superior shouted. Naruto flinched, holding the phone away from his ear.

"It is still improbable that he would have gotten to Jamaica to assassinate the IMF member within the time frame of his death," Naruto said calmly. A click of the receiver was his only answer.

"…_The police have confirmed that this was the work of the Sandman. Sand had been strewn across the floor and some had been stuffed in the Executive's mouth. He was shot three times straight through the heart. There were no prints or any other clues as to the identity of the infamous killer…"_

Naruto's cell phone was ringing again and he once again brought it to his ear absently.

"_What did you want?_" Gaara's annoyed voice came over the phone.

"Hey Gaara…" Naruto replied.


	4. Chapter 4

If: Another chapter! I personally enjoy this one. Hope ya like it.

Wanrings: ... boys liking boys?

Gaara had been pretty pissed at his sister for making him talk to _Naruto_ the first time on Wednesday night. He didn't want to talk to the blond. _That man_ had totally violated him, though Gaara was finding himself not feeling very violated. But as his sister Temari had pointed out, he would have to talk to him eventually, so he took the phone.

"What do you want Naruto?" he asked rather bluntly.

"_Well, to be perfectly honest I'm checking up on you to make sure that you're not off killing someone_," Naruto said just as bluntly. Gaara snorted.

"Well now you know I'm not killing someone, so… fuck off," Gaara said. He heard Temari shout at him to be 'nice.' Gaara sneered. Nice… oh yeah, he was going to be nice to the man single-handedly screwing with his life and watching him like a creepy stalker.

"… _Wow, you're certainly in a good mood,_" Naruto commented. Gaara's response was to hang the phone up.

"Jerk," he muttered wandering into the kitchen where his sister was now attempting to cook dinner. "Where'd Kankuro go? Isn't he supposed to cook? I thought you weren't allowed near the stove?"

Temari turned and glared at her youngest brother. "Are you trying to imply that I can't cook? And what's with the third degree?"

Gaara scowled again. "I hate him."

Temari just looked at her brother, totally confused. Kankuro came down the stairs and walked into the kitchen, instantly freezing as he saw his sister near the stove. Fearing for his food, and his life, Kankuro rushed over and pushed his sister away from his food

"Gaara, did she touch my food?!" Kankuro nearly shouted. Gaara suppressed a chuckle, especially after seeing his sister's face and his brother's look of utter horror.

"I think she might have," Gaara replied. Kankuro started to cry crocodile tears.

"Noooo!! Not my food! How am I supposed to survive if she keeps trying to cook?" his brother wailed. Temari was practically growling at her brother and slowly advanced on him. Feeling her vicious, murderous aura Kankuro started to back away from his scary sister.

"Would you like to repeat that Kankuro? I'm sure I could teach you a lesson again, like the last time you said something like that," Temari threatened. Kankuro only whimpered.

"That's what I thought. Now finish dinner before we all starve."

As Temari turned around and went to sit at the table, where Gaara had already sat down, Kankuro mumbled something about 'psychotic siblings' under his breath. Gaara just rolled his eyes at his sibling's foolishness.

"So who was on the phone anyway Gaara?" Kankuro asked blissfully unaware of all the emotional baggage that came with that question. Gaara groaned and let his head fall onto the kitchen table.

"Yeah Gaara, who _was_ on the phone?" Temari asked, knowing full well that her brother didn't want to talk about it.

"Shut up Temari, and you don't want to know Kankuro," Gaara replied to both his siblings, cursing his blighted fate.

"Aw, but now I want to know even more," Kankuro replied, teasing his brother. Gaara turned his head to glare at his brother.

"It was his _boyfriend_," Temari said smarmily. Kankuro choked on air and Gaara reached out and kicked his sister. "Don't kick me! Your brother asked you a question and you didn't answer, so I answered for you.

"He's not my boyfriend," Gaara grumbled.

"I know that, but your brother doesn't. You gotta admit, it was rather amusing to watch him choke on air," Temari replied. "Besides, with the way you've been acting I wouldn't be surprised if you liked him that way."

A thud was heard and the two chatting Sabakuno siblings looked over the table to see that their brother had fainted. Gaara sighed and moved to remove the food from the burner, hoping to keep it from burning.

"Now look what you've done," Gaara accused. Temari acted insulted.

"If you would have just been a normal teenage boy and went out, discovered your sexual identity, and flaunted it around like everyone else in this household we wouldn't be in this situation," Temari replied. Gaara just deadpanned at her.

"I did go out and discover my sexual identity. Need I mention that you're the only one who I told?" Gaara asked. Temari rolled her eyes.

"That's exactly why we're in this situation. You told me and haven't even let your own brother in on your little 'secret,'" she said. Gaara glared at her.

"What's you're point?" he snapped. Temari rolled her eyes once again.

"If you had told your brother the first time you got involved with someone, namely a boy, we wouldn't be having to have this conversation with your idiot brother," Temari said.

Gaara's lip twitched and frowned slightly before he replied. "Maybe… but it wouldn't be half as fun tease him now if I had told him then."

"Are you saying we get to mess with his mind?" Temari asked, hopeful that her brother would allow her to mess with her eldest brother's mind, once again. Gaara only nodded.

Bending down and crouching on the floor beside his unconscious brother, Gaara slapped his brother's face. Kankuro was immediately awake and alert.

"What? Huh? What's going on? Why am I on the floor?" he asked his brother. Gaara rolled his eyes and went to sit back down in his chair. Kankuro stood as well and saw that the food wasn't on heat. "I guess I'm lucky you got it off the heat… its done by the way."

Temari stood to get a place mat for the still hot plate while Gaara went and got plates and silverware. As Gaara set the table, Temari got the glasses, and after Kankuro put down his pan he got the milk. After everything was all set and all three of the siblings were sitting, they just sat for a moment in silence.

"You know… sometimes I feel like we're missing something," Temari commented. Gaara just shrugged and Kankuro made a non-committal grunt.

"Whatever, let's eat," Kankuro said. Food was distributed and eaten and after they were done, Temari decided it would be in both her brother's interests to continue her discussion with Gaara from earlier.

"Gaara… what exactly do you feel for the FBI guy?" she asked bluntly. Kankuro choked on his milk and Gaara twitched.

"… Naruto…" the red head mumbled. Temari leaned towards him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that," she said. Gaara glowered.

"I said, his name is Naruto," Gaara clarified. Temari smirked.

"Oh really now…" she leered.

"Do we really have to talk about this? I just ate," Kankuro complained. Both of his siblings glared at him, and he meekly let them continue their conversation.

"So what's with this fascination of his with you?" Temari asked, trying a different method of questioning. Gaara's face scrunched up minutely in thought.

"I don't know… the first time I met him it was because they suspect me of being the Sandman, hence the call tonight to make sure I wasn't out killing people…" Gaara started before Temari interrupted him.

"How did he get our number anyway, I'm sure you didn't give it to him," she asked. Gaara shrugged.

"I'm sure he has connections and that he'd be able to get it from somewhere… I hope he doesn't have my cell number…" Gaara said, mumbling the last part. Temari just nodded.

"But anyway, back to what you were saying," she prompted.

"Yes, please go on, this is interesting stuff," Kankuro added sarcastically, once again earning him two glares.

"But even that first time he was… staring at me and he even asked me out!" Gaara exclaimed. "And then he would just 'conveniently' show up everywhere I was going, and each time he ended our conversations with an invitation to a date. And all of this within the first week! And now this! He just picked me up, spun me around and kissed me right on the lips!"

Temari nodded her head.

"Dude, what was it like to be kissed by a dude?" Kankuro asked. Temari almost had to clap a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing at the absurdity of her brother's question, but instantly sobered when she saw Gaara was taking it seriously.

"I don't know. Maybe you can tell me if it was weird or not," Gaara commented idly. "It was… it just happened. I didn't even realize that he was kissing me until I felt a slight pressure on my lips. It was… nice…"

Kankuro and Temari shared a look between them. Temari had a small smile and Kankuro a knowing smirk.

"Anything else?" Kankuro asked.

"… I rather liked being in his arms…" Gaara admitted begrudgingly. Temari's smile grew into a full grown smirk. "I felt… safe. And then he kissed me and I… I felt… _complete_."

"Wow. Little brother, I think you might just be falling for this guy," Kankuro said. Temari nodded in agreement. Gaara scowled darkly.

"That's impossible. He's an annoying, stalker pervert," Gaara retorted. Kankuro laughed at his brother's description and Temari rolled her eyes. "He's always looking at my ass, and sometimes I could swear that he's pondering eating me."

"You know… the eating thing wouldn't be bad at all," Kankuro told his brother, earning him a smack on the arm from his sister.

"Don't be a pervert," she chided him. Gaara just feigned a look of confusion.

"How would him devouring me be a good thing?" he asked, trying to sound like he had no idea to what he was referring. Temari turned pink and marveled at her brother's acting while Kankuro grew a perverted grin.

"Well little brother, it would mean that he would…" Kankuro started to explain but Temari smacked him upside the head before he could finish.

"Don't you dare tell him about that!You'll scar his poor little virgin mind!" Temari scolded. Kankuro rolled his eyes.

"He's gonna learn about it sooner or later," Kankuro retorted. "He might as well hear it from his family."

"No! That's almost disgusting!" Temari replied.

"Uh… guys?" Gaara tried to interject, but his siblings just ignored him as they continued their argument.

"Its just like having 'the talk,' just on a different level," Kankuro argued.

"I said no! Its weird to have your brother explain felacio to your youngest sibling!" Temari argued.

"Would you two shut up!" Gaara shouted, earning him two surprised looks. Clearing his throat and lowering his voice, Gaara continued. "I already know what the hell he's talking about, I've done it before."

The room was dead quiet for a moment before Kankuro fell out of his chair in a dead faint. Temari cracked up and Gaara smirked. Moving over to their brother, they decided to smack him awake. When Kankuro suddenly bolt upright, he stared wide-eyed at his baby brother.

"What did you say?" he asked, almost afraid of the answer.

"Its unimportant, I want to know what all this means in concerns to Naruto and I," Gaara said, tactfully avoiding answering his brother's question.

Exchanging a look, Temari nodded for Kankuro to voice their opinion.

"We think you may like him as more than just a friend," Kankuro said, cowering slightly, hoping not to get hit again.

"… I never even thought of him as a friend in the first place," Gaara said.

"Well, what can I say little brother, you seem to lean a little on the gay side of the fence," Kankuro said. Gaara scowled at him.

"I don't like him," he said with a certainty.

"Gaara… why don't you at least give him a chance?" Temari asked. Gaara's scowl deepened and he stood up.

"I'm leaving," Gaara said before turning and leaving the kitchen and then the house.

"Our little baby's all grown up!" Kankuro exclaimed, hugging his sister and crying dramatically. Temari sighed and just pushed him away.

"I hope he'll be ok…" she said as the two remaining siblings cleaned up the kitchen.

* * *

Gaara didn't want to speak to Naruto the second time he called. But then there was that whole debacle with one of the Executive board members of the IMF being murdered, so Gaara figured it was in his best interest to call the blond back. He was still confused about what exactly he felt for the blond man, which didn't help the situation at all.

"What did you want?" Gaara growled through his phone at the blond.

"_Hey Gaara…_" Naruto responded. Gaara rolled his eyes upwards to look to the sky for help in dealing with this idiot.

"I said, what did you want?" Gaara repeated himself.

"Oh! You mean when I called earlier?" Naruto asked, clearly distracted by something.

"Yes," Gaara replied, trying to make this exchange as short as possible.

"_I just wanted to make sure you weren't out killing people… especially now that I see that one of the Execs for IMF was done in by the Sandman…" _Naruto told Gaara. "_Why didn't you pick up anyway?_"

"… Maybe because I didn't want to talk to you," Gaara snapped. Naruto chuckled.

"_I totally fucked things up, didn't I_?" the FBI agent said. Gaara could help himself from nodding in agreement. "_Where are you anyway? Its really loud…_"

Panicking, Gaara looked around. "I'm at a club. Temari and her… fiancé dragged me out, along with my brother, who's now missing…"

"_In the middle of the day?_" Naruto asked.

"…Yeah…" Gaara said, eyes darting around.

"_Well… have fun,_" Naruto replied, giving Gaara an opening to escape their conversation.

"Yeah… fun…" Gaara muttered. There was a moment of awkward silence. "I'll… talk to you when I get back…"

"_Really?!"_ Naruto asked, sounding way too excited. "_Cause I was almost thinking I'd have to be a real FBI guy and just stalk you and tap your phone line…_"

Gaara hung up. "Idiot."

* * *

Naruto had learned from Temari, and from Gaara's credit card provided, that the red head had hopped a plane Thursday night and would be arriving mid-Friday. So he was heading to Gaara's apartment to meet him when he got back. He was quite chipper, even for him, but that was because Gaara seemed to be giving him the tiniest of chances. Naruto had called Sakura right after his conversation with Gaara Thursday. The girl had been super happy for him, and had told him that he had to take pictures of them together. It was hard for Naruto to believe how perverted Sakura really was. Even though she had been nearly obsessive over his relationship with Sasuke (after she had been obsessed with just Sasuke) it still blew his mind that she liked that sort of thing.

So here he was, standing outside of Gaara's apartment, pondering if the red head was home. He reached out to knock on the door, but the door just swung open. Instantly in FBI mode, Naruto pulled out his gun, which he always kept with him since you never know when a gun would come in handy.

"Gaara?" Naruto called out softly, checking the living room for any sort of intruder, but only finding it in a state of disarray. Papers were strewn everywhere, there was an open laptop and a million books. Pillows were thrown across the room, which had knocked down some of Gaara's trinkets that had been on the wall. Becoming worried about the red head, Naruto started down the hallway. He checked out the first door on his left, just a bedroom. It was empty and immaculately clean. As he made his way to the second door, which was on his right, he heard running water. Without thinking, he burst through the door, pointing his gun at the man in the shower.

"Freeze!" he shouted. The figure in the shower froze before slowly turning to face the blond. Instantly Naruto was blushing and backing out of the bathroom.

"… Naruto…" Gaara growled. He slid the glass door open and grabbed a towel, wrapping it around his waist.

"Eh he he… Hi Gaara," Naruto said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head and still backing towards the door, an irate red head following him step for step. "Your door was open, and your living room was a mess… so I though maybe someone broke in…"

"And what criminal, pray tell, would take a shower in the apartment they had just ransacked carelessly?" Gaara asked, growing increasingly irritated.

"Um… the stupid kind?" Naruto tried, finding himself suddenly pressed up against the hallway wall. Gaara stopped in front of him, and put his hands on the wall on either side of Naruto's head before leaning in.

"Or maybe the stupid one is you?" Gaara said, scowling.

"Um… maybe you're right?" Naruto said, unsure of himself, and finding this position quite appealing. A wet, hot Gaara fresh from the shower, pinning him to a wall… definitely on his list of turn ons.

"Of course I'm right. You're an idiot and I don't know why I deal with you," Gaara said. Naruto smiled a bit.

"Because you love me?" he tried. Gaara scoffed at the idea but didn't say anything.

"Um… are we going to just stand like this all day?"

Gaara seemed to realize the position they were in and immediately backed away, but lost his towel in the process. Both men blushed darkly. Gaara quickly bent down and snatched his towel. Naruto, once again not thinking before acting, pressed the red head up against the wall and kissed him again.


	5. Chapter 5

If: Another one bites the dust! More people have shown up! ... Oh and by the way, I don't own Naruto.

**Warnings:** Boys molesting boys, blood and gore, character death!

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Gaara's mind was blank. It wasn't pleasant, it wasn't a bad thing, it was just… blank. It was like his brain had decided to take a holiday while Gaara's body was stuck pinned to the wall beneath a decidedly perverted blond. All that was registering in Gaara's mind was that there were lips, oddly smooth lips, pressed against his own, and a firm body pushing him against the white wall.

_Between a rock and a hard place_, Gaara thought sardonically. With that thought, his mind seemed to catch up to the situation at hand, but the second the blond's lips _moved_ it was gone again.

Those horribly soft and almost feminine lips were gently caressing his own. Gaara's eyes rolled to the back of his head and his eye lids closed. A leg worked its way between his own, and Gaara's hands lost their grip on his towel. Those lips were parting now and Gaara felt a flick of tongue. As a knee was worked up against his exposed groin, a gasp passed through his lips and so did the tongue. The muscle swept across his teeth and ran along the roof of his mouth before caressing his own tongue. His body moving on its own, his tongue responded in turn, caressing the tongue in his mouth. This effectively startled the blond, but it didn't make him want to stop in any way. A hand traced his hipbone and that knee ground against him. Gaara groaned.

Some small part of Gaara's mind was screaming at him, telling him he shouldn't be doing this, that he should push the blond away and sock him. Gaara was too immersed in pleasure to listen to that voice. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on the way you looked at things, Naruto's own inner conscience had piped up and the blond was now trying to disentangle himself from the red head.

As Naruto's lips separated from Gaara's and he could finally breathe properly, his mind seemed to come back. The full force of what had just transpired hit him squarely on the jaw. Gaara's mouth hung open, and his hands, which had apparently grabbed onto the blond at some point, dropped. Naruto winced at the expression on Gaara's face.

"… Um…" Naruto said, effectively breaking the mood. Gaara twitched and finally pushed the blond away, unaware of his nudeness.

"You!" he growled. Naruto winced again. His life was going to end. He was going to be killed by a very mad, extremely hot, and bothered red head. It wasn't the worst way to go, he supposed.

"Um… I think I should go…" Naruto said, before noticing that Gaara was nude. Blushing from head to toe he tried to turn away but could only stare. Gaara was most definitely a natural red head.

"I could kill you! You just molested me!" Gaara shouted. Naruto pouted, finally being able to tear his eyes away from Gaara's body.

"You didn't seem to mind!" Naruto said, gesturing to the red head's state of undress. Blushing and furious, Gaara grabbed the towel and tied it securely around his waist.

"You caught me by surprise!" Gaara countered.

"If you didn't like it, or want it you could have just punched me!" Naruto shot back. Now it was Gaara's turn to pout.

"Maybe I really should kill you!" Gaara yelled. Naruto's eyes went wide and he backed up. "You certainly have been throwing wrenches in everything I do after all; I would be doing myself a favor and probably a favor for the FBI too!"

Naruto was a bit saddened by the red head's words. Even though Gaara was just lashing out because he was having his own issues concerning what he felt for the blond, those words hit home for the blond. After all, a lot of people had said that to him over the years, but somehow hearing it come from Gaara made it hurt all the more.

"… You're probably right," Naruto said softly after a while. Gaara just blinked at the normally exuberant blond.

"… What?" he said, unsure if he had heard correctly.

"I said you were right. You probably would be doing a lot of people a favor by killing me," Naruto said, hiding his eyes behind his bangs as he felt tears start to well up.

Gaara could only stare at the blond for a moment. He hadn't really meant what he said; he was just trying to keep himself from actually liking being pressed up against the wall by the blond. Sighing, Gaara stepped up to Naruto and awkwardly patted his head.

"… I didn't mean it," Gaara said finally. Naruto looked at the red head and smiled sadly.

"I know, but for some reason, hearing those words come from your mouth just made me sad… my heart hurts when you're mad at me…" Naruto admitted, hanging his head in shame.

Gaara just looked at Naruto, noting that his posture was slumped and that his arms were limp. He seemed defeated. Surely this wasn't the Naruto who was always bouncing around, forcing himself into Gaara's life.

"… Stop moping, it's just wrong," Gaara said, annoyed at the blond for not being his chipper self.

"Huh?" Naruto asked eloquently. Gaara rolled his eyes.

"It's just not right for you to not be happy," he replied, looking away with a slight blush adorning his cheeks. Naruto grinned largely.

"Gaara likes me!" he shouted happily, his mood doing a 180. Gaara soon found himself in the arms of a slightly insane blond.

"Get off me!" he shouted, pushing ineffectually at the blond's solid chest.

"Nope! I'm never letting you go! Now that I know that you like me I'm going to bug you even more! You no longer have an excuse to not go out with me too," Naruto exclaimed. Gaara glowered at Naruto's shoulder.

"If you don't get off of me I'm going to kick you in a place grown men treasure," Gaara threatened. This effectively got Naruto to back off, but not for long. Gaara was swept up into strong arms and spun around. Naruto was laughing and Gaara was gripping onto the blond's shoulders.

"Put me down this instant!" Gaara yelled. Once again he was ignored, but at least the spinning stopped. Naruto started to walk down the hallway before taking a right into the bedroom he had searched earlier. Gaara grabbed onto the frame of the door. Naruto tried to tug him off, but Gaara's grip was tight.

"I'm not going to ravish you, you know," Naruto said, attempting to calm the other man. Gaara didn't let go of the door. "I just want to lie down with you."

"… Sounds like sex to me," Gaara snapped. Naruto chuckled.

"I'm not interested in you just because I want to have sex with you, you know," Naruto said. "You're an interesting guy, and I want to know everything about you that I can."

"… I highly doubt that," Gaara replied.

"Either you've got a really warped mind, or you've had a really bad experience with relationships," Naruto commented.

"Really bad would be an understatement," Gaara grumbled. Naruto raised an eyebrow, not expecting that admission.

"I'm not going to do anything, I swear," Naruto said, just trying to get Gaara to let go of the door, it must have worked because Gaara's hands were back on his shoulders. Walking into the room and shutting the door with his foot, Naruto set Gaara back down on his feet in the center of the room. Gaara reached out and snatched his towel from the ground.

"… I think the towel is possessed by an evil spirit," Gaara mumbled, pouting. Naruto grinned.

"You are so fucking cute when you pout," he said, leaning down to kiss Gaara's cheek. "Cheer up!"

Gaara glared at the blond. He walked over to his closet, turned on the light and shut the door behind him. Naruto just blinked at the door.

"Um… Gaara, what are you doing?" he asked cautiously. Some rustling around was his only response. "Gaara?"

The red head stepped out of the closet. Naruto had to mentally slap himself to keep from drooling over the sight of the red head. Gaara was wearing a long sleeved plaid collared button up shirt that was way too big for him, coming down to about mid-thigh. The top two buttons were left undone and the shirt was askew, showing off one pale shoulder. Naruto noted that Gaara was wearing very short, black boxer-briefs that were hugging his ass and were almost criminally short.

"You are so hot…" was the first thing out of Naruto's mouth. Gaara just cocked his head to the side. "Are those shorts girls' shorts? I mean… they're so small…"

Gaara glanced down and shrugged. He hesitantly stepped forward and to the bed. Climbing onto the queen sized mattress, he laid down on his side, looking like a poster for sex. Naruto had to pause for a moment.

"Um… I'm gonna go close the front door and be right back," he said and made a dash for it. Closing the door to the apartment, he slid down the wooden surface to just sit for a moment. A shadow fell over him and he looked up to see a perfectly moles table Gaara standing in front of him.

"Are you running away?" Gaara asked, blinking his eyes. Naruto found Gaara's blank face rather scary. "I thought that this was what you wanted."

Naruto twitched. "No. I mean, yes I eventually want to have sex with you, who wouldn't? But for right now I just want to be able to hold you and talk to you, and that's all."

Gaara frowned. "I don't get it."

Naruto gave him a small smile. Standing up, he gathered Gaara up into his arms. Gaara didn't protest this time. Naruto smiled happily and then slung the thin red head over his shoulder. Apparently Gaara didn't like being man-handled in such a way because he was now trying to get free.

"I'm just taking you back to the bed room, you can calm down you know," Naruto said, trying to pacify the squirming red head.

"Maybe I don't want to go back to my bedroom," Gaara replied. Naruto shrugged his free shoulder and changed directions, heading instead for the couch. Throwing Gaara down onto an empty space on the couch, Naruto started to push the various things off of it.

"… Don't mess those up, it would be a pain to reorganize those," Gaara said. Naruto nodded and carefully put the papers on the floor. Sitting next to the red head, Naruto wrapped an arm around his waist and pulled him into a comfortable lean. Gaara rested his head on Naruto's shoulder, just relishing in the human contact he was receiving.

"Now then, this isn't so bad, now is it?" Naruto asked. Gaara shook his head.

"… Can we lie down?" Gaara hesitantly asked. Naruto smiled.

"Sure, just stand up for a second," Naruto replied. Gaara did as he was told. Naruto proceeded to stretch himself out on the couch and lay on his side, facing the standing Gaara. Patting the open space on the couch, Naruto indicated that Gaara could lie beside him. Slowly Gaara sat down and then lay next to Naruto. Reaching out and wrapping an arm around Gaara's waist and maneuvering his other beneath his head, Naruto brought Gaara closer to himself, effectively cuddling the other man.

"See? Isn't this nice?" Naruto asked. Gaara nodded slightly, his head buried in Naruto's chest. "I like cuddling, so you better get used to it."

"… I think I could like this non-sexual contact," Gaara admitted. Naruto smiled softly down at the red head's upturned face before pressing their lips together in a gentle kiss.

-------------------

The alley was dingy. The smell of rotten food and piss was permeating the air, making breathing difficult. There was a black cat perched on a dumpster, digging through its contents, trying to find something to eat. Rats were scurrying across the wet pavement. Someone threw their trash out their window, narrowly missing the cat. Someone was running down the dirty alleyway, their footsteps echoing in the night's foul air. Casual footsteps were heard to be following the quick steps. Voices were heard, one deep and the other slightly higher.

"You wanted to end this, so here we are _nii-san_," the slightly higher voice said.

"Indeed I did _otouto_," the deep voice replied, slightly out of breathe.

"The let us finish what you started all those years ago with the murder of our clan," the first voice said. The black clad figures rushed at each other in the alley, colliding with the smack of flesh on flesh.

The taller of the two hit the shorter square in the jaw and the shorter punched the taller man's ribs. Grunts were heard in the formerly silent alleyway as the two exchanged a flurry of blows. The taller man pressed the shorter up against a decaying wall with his hand tightly clasped around the shorter man's throat. The shorter man clawed at the hand cutting off his air-supply, slowing choking the life out him. A hand crept into the shorter man's back pocket and a click was heard through the silent alleyway. The taller man barely had time to dodge as the shorter of the two swiped at him with his switch blade.

"Tsk tsk, otouto, I didn't think that you'd resort to such measures so quickly," the taller man said disapprovingly.

"Shut up Itachi!" the shorter man shouted disturbing the sleep of some pigeons, and making them fly away. As the sound of flapping wings faded away the man known as Itachi scoffed.

"You are so cruel to your older brother Sasuke," Itachi said, feigning a pout.

"You're the cruel one!" Sasuke retorted. Itachi smiled cruelly.

"I suppose that's true, but otouto, I want you to know something before you continue your pathetic attempt to kill me," Itachi said, stepping towards his younger brother. Stepping right up to Sasuke, he leaned down before whispering in his ear "You are still not worth my time."

Sasuke screeched at Itachi and lunged forward, attempting to plunge his switchblade into Itachi's heart. Itachi coolly side stepped and watched as his brother ran past him with amusement.

"You're going to have to try much harder than that to kill me Sasuke," Itachi taunted, egging the younger man on. Sasuke's face contorted into a look of pure hatred, a snarl passing through his lips. Itachi grinned, pleased with his brother's transformation.

In a flurry of movement that a normal person would have a hard time following, the two were suddenly grasping onto each others arms, in a deadlock. Sasuke, still royally pissed off, tilted his head back and head butted his brother. Itachi swore and let go of his brother's hands. Sasuke broke to the right, scrambling to pick up the switchblade that Itachi had knocked from his hand. Bent over, looking desperately for the blade that would hopefully kill his brother, Sasuke didn't notice said brother approaching. Only when it was too late did he see the taller man tower over him before he was kicked in the face. Rolling to the side, trying to prevent the inevitable second kick to the ribs since he was lying on the ground, Sasuke rolled over the very thing he had been looking for.

Itachi, seeing the look of success on his brother's face swiftly kicked him in the face again. Sasuke grunted as his nose broke, blood gushing from the wound and his eyes momentarily going out of focus. Itachi then kicked him in the ribs, forcing him to curl up, trying to protect himself. Itachi leaned down and grasped Sasuke's hair. Pulling on the black strands, he forced his brother onto his knees. Sasuke's bleeding face was contorted into one of extreme pain and Itachi silently gloated.

"I think you've pestered me long enough Sasuke," Itachi said. Grasping Sasuke's throat once again, he waited as his brother's air supply was cut off, waiting for his inevitable death. "Be glad _brother_, I'm finally giving you what you want. You can join the rest of our accursed family now."

Itachi barely had a smirk of victory on his face before it fell away into a twisted scream of pain. Sasuke had slashed the switchblade across his neck, tearing flesh and causing blood to splash forth. As Itachi's hands went to his neck, inadvertently letting Sasuke go, he could only stare at his brother as he fell to his knees. His body was shutting down. A gurgling noise passed through the hole in his throat and his eyes rolled to the back of his head. As Itachi's arms fell to his sides, he stopped breathing and his lifeless body slumped to the ground.

Sasuke stared at the corpse before him. Blinking, he almost couldn't comprehend what had happened. An insane grin crossed his face and he cackled into the disturbingly quiet night. Looking back at his brother's body, he felt that hatred boil up inside him once again. Calmly walking up to the cooling corpse he started to kick it. Each kick became harder, and soon he was on his knees, cutting the body to shreds, spattering blood everywhere. After a while his senses came back to him and he blinked. He didn't bother hiding any evidence that he had been there. Shakily climbing to his feet he turned away from his brother's mangled corpse. When they identified the body, if they even found it in this disgusting alley, there would be no doubt who killed Itachi. Satisfied, Sasuke began to walk away, already focusing on his next obsession, and this one would be just as satisfying to quench.


	6. Chapter 6

If: Sorry this took a bit longer to get out, I had a minor case of writer's block. But now I'm good and this story should keep on rolling like it used to. Things are starting to pick up. The plot is thickening!! (I always wanted to say that)

**Warnings**: boys feeling other boys up, cursing

**Review replies**: HanChan- Mucho gracias for the review. You might be surprised by who Sasuke's after. He he he... anyways. I hope you like this new update!

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The ringing of Naruto's phone startled him out of watching his boyfriend (?) breeze through Guitar Hero on Hard. Gaara was currently on a seriously sick note streak on YYZ. The red head had steadily worked his way career mode on easy, and medium and was now about five songs away from finishing it on hard. Ever since Naruto had brought the PS2 and the Guitar Hero over the Monday (it was now Tuesday) after the Friday they had technically gotten together, Gaara had been playing it. Naruto had thought that it would be a fun game that they could play together (he had two guitars after all) but no such luck. Ever since Gaara had gotten his hands on the game he had been so focused on beating it on all levels of hardness that he had totally forgotten that Naruto existed. 

Naruto's phone rang again. Picking up his phone as Gaara finally finished YYZ, Naruto indicated to him to turn down the volume as he noticed Gaara had once again gotten a five star rating. Grumbling to himself, Naruto flipped his phone open.

"Hello?" he said.

"_Uzumaki!_" his superior shouted, causing Naruto to hold the phone away from his ear and wince.

"Yes sir?" he asked politely.

"_We've found Uchiha Itachi,_" the man on the other end of the line said. Naruto instantly straightened, sitting up from his slouch.

"You did? Where is he?" he asked anxiously.

"_Phoenix,_" his boss replied.

"He's detained in Phoenix?" Naruto asked, excited by the prospect of having Itachi to use as bait to catch his brother Sasuke.

"_Not exactly, Uchiha Itachi is dead_," the man replied. Naruto was shocked. Itachi was dead? "_We found his corpse approximately three days after he had been murdered. It was pretty gruesome. He was shredded Uzumaki._"

"Do they know who did it?" Naruto asked, dreading the answer.

"_Yes. He didn't bother to cover any of his tracks. It was Sasuke, Uzumaki,_" the man said. Naruto flinched; he felt Gaara's eyes on him, watching his every move.

"Should I go down there?" Naruto asked. He didn't really want to leave, but he was most likely going to have to. There was a silence on the other end. "Sir?"

"_Do you want to catch Uchiha Sasuke?_" the man asked.

"Of course!" Naruto nearly shouted.

"_Then get your ass down here!_" was shouted back at him. His superior slammed down the phone and Naruto could only hear beeping for a moment.

"What crawled up his ass?" Naruto muttered, put off by the way his boss had acted. Turning to see if Gaara had started the next song, he found the red head staring at him, Naruto found it slightly disturbing.

"Are you leaving?" Gaara asked. Naruto pouted but nodded. Gaara sighed, putting down the guitar and scooting over to the blond before snuggling into his side. Naruto smiled at his red headed beauty and wrapped his arm around him.

"I have to go to Phoenix to check out the murder of one Itachi Uchiha," Naruto said after a moment of comfortable silence. He felt Gaara stiffen momentarily but the red head quickly relaxed.

"Itachi Uchiha?" Gaara asked, tilting his head to look at Naruto. Naruto chuckled.

"I know you know him, you stiffening up just now was proof enough," Naruto said. Gaara scowled. "His brother Sasuke seems to have finally murdered him."

"Why would his brother want to murder him?" Gaara asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"Because Sasuke thinks that Itachi murdered his entire family," Naruto said, affectionately kissing the top of Gaara's head.

"Why would he think that?" Gaara asked, once again playing dumb.

"Because he got home just in time to see his brother slaughter their parents," Naruto said, his grip tightening on Gaara. Gaara's face became thoughtful. Looking at Naruto, and then at the stack of papers he had been neglecting since the blond had molested him, he came to a decision.

"When are you leaving?" he asked, seemingly changing the subject. Naruto glanced at the clock hanging on the wall.

"I'm going to see if I can't catch a flight in a couple hours," Naruto said. "I should probably go see when the next one is."

"Don't bother," Gaara said, earning him a confused look from the blond. "I'll get my computer and we can see when the next one is."

Gaara slipped out of Naruto's embrace and padded across the floor to his computer. While he was coming back, he clicked on one of his many shortcuts. Sitting next to Naruto, Gaara scrolled through the airport's schedule. Seeing a flight in about three hours, he looked for available tickets and found that there were four available, two in coach and two in first class. Reserving the two in first class Gaara turned to ask Naruto if the time was alright.

"Why did you book two?" Naruto asked and a light blush dusted Gaara's cheeks.

"I figured I'd go down with you… I have to do some business anyway," Gaara said, not looking at the blond. Naruto's smile was as wide as it could possibly get. Instantly Gaara was in a bone crushing hug.

"I love you!" Naruto exclaimed, his mouth once again running away from him. Gaara stiffened again, but relaxed eventually, figuring that this was how Naruto normally was.

"… Right…" he said, trying to tug the blond's arms off of himself.

-------------------

The flight had been boring, and the drive to Gaara's siblings' house had been long. Naruto had fallen asleep in the car, and Gaara had driven in relative peace. He had convinced the blond that it would be easier if he just staid with Gaara and his siblings for however long he was going to be in Arizona. Naruto had jumped at the chance to live with Gaara, even if it was with Gaara's siblings too. It greatly amused Gaara that Naruto was so enthusiastic in his affection. Gaara's cell rang.

"Hello?" he asked, turning his music down to hear the person on the other end.

"_Tonight, the Green Bird, Richard Glease_," the voice on the other end of the line said.

"Don't you think it's a little presumptuous of you to send me out the day I get to Arizona?" Gaara asked, irritated by the man on the other end of the line.

"_No, and you'll want to do this one_," the man said. Scowling, Gaara finally relented.

"Fine… anything I need to know?" he asked petulantly.

"_Yes… you're going to want to wear something… pretty_," the man said. Gaara's scowl deepened.

"Fine," and with that Gaara snapped his phone shut. "Jackass."

Naruto stirred out of his slumber as Gaara pulled up into the driveway of his siblings' house. Glancing at the blond as he stretched, Gaara couldn't help but think how cute the other man looked.

"Hey there," he said as Naruto finished rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Smiling at the red head Naruto leaned over and gave him a kiss. Gaara blushed prettily and Naruto's smile became more soft and loving.

"Hey," he said. He looked out the windows and noticed that they were parked in front of a rather large house in a rather ritzy neighborhood. "Wow… this is you siblings' place?"

"Yeah… they said it was just right," Gaara said, unbuckling his seatbelt and opening his door. Naruto hurriedly followed him. Gaara popped the trunk to his BMW and grabbed his bag of clothes and attaché. Naruto grabbed his suitcase and shut the trunk.

"… Naruto," Gaara said as they stood in front of the door. Naruto turned to him and cocked his head to the side in a silent question. "I'm warning you right now, my sister's going to jump on you, and my brother… well… words won't be able to really capture what he'll do to you…"

Naruto winced, suddenly worried. "Um… why are they going to do these things?"

"… Because you're my… boyfriend…" Gaara said hesitantly. Naruto beamed at his now official boyfriend and would have hugged him if the door hadn't of been opened at that exact moment. Both boys were startled to see a man with a spiky ponytail and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth answer the door. Gaara scowled.

"You…" he growled. Naruto bounced up to the other man and tackled him to the ground. Gaara's eyes widened and he looked up from his boyfriend and his sister's fiancé to see his brother laughing at his soon to be in-law's plight.

"Shikamaru!" Naruto exclaimed, nuzzling into the other man's shoulder. "What are you doing at Gaara's siblings' house?"

Shikamaru grumbled something about troublesome blonds. Gaara rolled his eyes and Kankuro fell to the floor laughing. Naruto just turned to give his boyfriend the cutest, most confused eyes ever. Gaara was instantly suckered into answering Naruto's question.

"_Shikamaru_," Gaara spit the name out. "Is my sister's fiancé."

"Oh," Naruto said. He slowly got off of the other boy and held out a hand to help the poor guy up. Shika looked to find his cigarette being snubbed out by one pissed off looking blonde. Sighing and looking heavenward, Shika waited for the oncoming wrath of his fiancé.

"What have I told you about smoking in the house Shikamaru?!" the blonde screeched. Shika put a finger in his ear, clearly used to this sort of raving. "You're not supposed to smoke in here! You'll set off the fire alarms!"

Shikamaru sighed. Naruto was trying to valiantly hold off snickers and Kankuro was having a hard time breathing he was laughing so much. Gaara glared bloody murder at his sister's fiancé. It seemed that Temari knew she was getting nowhere with Shika and thus turned her attention to the cute blond stranger that her brother seemed to have brought with him.

"Who are you?" she asked Naruto. Naruto was too busy trying to stop giggling to answer, so Gaara did it for him.

"This is Naruto," he said. "The FBI agent that has been stalking me for just over two weeks."

Temari mouthed an 'Oh' and winked knowingly at her brother. Naruto took this chance, now that he had calmed down and stopped giggling, to latch onto one of Gaara's arms. Gaara handed his attaché case to his sister so he wouldn't drop it.

"I'm Gaara's boyfriend!" Naruto enthusiastically proclaimed. The room was silent for a moment before Gaara slapped his free hand to his forehead. Temari snickered and Kankuro was giving Naruto the evil eye. Shikamaru scoffed.

"Boyfriend Naruto?" Shikamaru asked skeptically. Naruto flushed but nodded his head fervently.

"Yes, he's my boyfriend," Naruto told the brunette. Shika mumbled something akin to 'troublesome' and his fiancé glared at him.

"What did I tell you about that word?" Temari said her voice deathly cold. Shika winced.

"What word?" the lazy genius replied, earning him a smack to the head.

"You know very well what word I'm talking about!" Temari screeched, digging in her claws for a long argument. Gaara watched in amusement until he noticed that Naruto was no longer clinging to him, how he hadn't noticed before was beyond him. Putting his bag on the ground, near Naruto's discarded suitcase, he started to search for his boyfriend. Peering into the living room he found said blond, who was apparently getting a 'talking to' by his overprotective brother.

"You will not touch my brother in this house," Kankuro was telling the scared blond. "You will keep your hands to yourself. You won't even think inappropriate thoughts about him, do you hear me?"

Naruto nodded. Kankuro smirked, pleased that he was instilling fear into the blond before him.

"Good. If Gaara tries to initiate anything you will find a way to say no without hurting his feelings, I will not have you deflowering my brother unless you're going to marry him," Kankuro said. Naruto's eyes were wide and Gaara tried not to laugh at the expression on his boyfriend's face. "You will not hurt my brother. You will not take advantage of him. And if you ever break his heart I will hunt you down and castrate you with my bare hands. I will make you wish that you were never born, do I make myself clear?"

Naruto nodded hastily, not wanting to piss off Gaara's scary brother. Gaara couldn't hold it in anymore and laughed at the predicament his boyfriend was in. Both Kankuro and Naruto looked over at him.

"Sorry," Gaara said, trying to hide his mirth, which he found was exceedingly difficult as Naruto hesitated and held himself from jumping onto the red head. Kankuro smiled at his handiwork.

"He's staying in here, on the couch," Kankuro said firmly. Gaara glared at his brother.

"He's not staying on the couch," he argued. "Why can't he stay in the guest room?"

"Because that's where Shikamaru is," Kankuro explained. Gaara smiled at that comment.

"Don't you think you're going a little bit overboard?" the red head asked. Kankuro shook his head in the negative.

"I will not have some guys defiling my siblings under my watch!" he exclaimed. Gaara snorted.

"Naruto will stay in my room," Gaara said. Kankuro glared at his brother.

"Are you undermining my authority?" he asked.

"Yes," Gaara said, sending his brother a truly evil glare. Kankuro backed off, a little afraid of his brother.

"… Fine. That doesn't mean I like it though," Kankuro said, slightly pouting.

"I don't care," Gaara said. He motioned for Naruto to follow him. "Come on Naruto, let's get you settled."

-------------------

The red head tugged at her skirt, it was entirely too short, but it was just the right length to get into the club. Scowling at the club and the line to get in, the red head adjusted her top. The clingy red material complimented her hair and dipped in a low V, showing off her practically non-existent cleavage. The black mini barely covered her shapely ass and showed off her sinful legs. Her pale skin was as pale as milk and as silky as satin. The stiletto heels she was wearing were starting to hurt and she had only been wearing them for twenty minutes. Sighing to herself, she started to walk to the club, only to be stopped short after noticing the 'couples only' sign. Cursing and kicking at the curb the red head turned to leave. The moment she turned though, arms wrapped around her waist. Whirling around to see who had dared to touch her, the red head's eyes went wide.

"Well, I certainly didn't expect to see you here," the man said, smirking at the red head's response to his presence. He let his hands trail up her thin arms and then down them again, before moving to grip her waist, pulling her to him. The red head was too stunned to resist him. Snapping to her senses she broke out of his gentle embrace.

"You son of a bitch! What the hell do you want?" she yelled at him, pissed beyond all belief by his presence. The man smirked, his thin pink lips curling faintly upward. He swept some of his black hair out of his face as a gust of wind swept the oddly cut hair into his eyes.

"I was hoping to find you, actually," he purred. The red head sneered at him, disgusted by the man before her. "I figured you'd come here, especially after what happened to… you know who."

The red head's sneer deepened. "You're sick, you know that?"

The man with black haired smirked. "I know, but you're not much better, now are you?"

The red head's mouth snapped shut, unable to deny the claims laid before her. The man approached her once again and slipped an arm around her waist.

"Let's get you into that club," he said, tugging her towards the entrance. The red head disliked the way he was handling her, and lord knows she didn't want his hands on her but it was the only way to get into the club to do her job. "I'm sure you have a job to do in there."

The red head stomped on the pompous man's foot, causing him to curse, but as they reached the entrance to the club she leaned into him and wrapped her own arm around his waist. The man leaned over to press his lips to the red head's cheek. Flinching, the red head didn't show any other dislike of the man as they stepped up to the bouncer. The big beefy bouncer looked at them and smirked before pulling the velvet rope away to allow them to enter. As they passed by he felt up the red head's ass. Turning, she smiled and winked at him before being pulled into the club by her 'date.'

The pounding bass took a moment to get used to but the red head took no notice of it, she whirled to face the black haired man and shoved him. The man's eyes went wide before he could control his reactions.

"You bastard… what do you want? You already dumped me once, why the sudden change in heart?" she hissed. The black haired man stepped up to the fuming red head and gathered her back into his arms, knowing that she couldn't protest too much without giving up her cover.

"I told you, now that _he_'s out of the way, I have time to pursue _other_ things," he spoke into her ear.

"I won't be your next obsession!" she protested, squirming in his grip and making it look like she was moving to the music and not trying to desperately get away from the man who had crushed her hopes once.

"You don't get a choice," he hissed, grabbing her ass as she moved. Gasping the red head gripped onto his shirt, hating that his hands still made her feel hot.

"Let go of me _Sasuke_," she growled, getting angry with the Uchiha who held her so close.

"Never, _Gaara_," Sasuke replied. He squeezed his hands that were still on the red head's ass and caused Gaara to moan and clutch onto him tighter.

"Excuse me," a stuffy man, who looked rather like a butler, said interrupting the moment between the two of them. "Mr. Glease would like you two to join him."

Gaara sent one final glare to the last Uchiha, indicating that he had to help him keep his cover before nodding in consent to the stuffy man. One of Sasuke's arms staid wrapped securely around Gaara's waist as they followed the stuffy man towards Richard Glease.


	7. Chapter 7

If: Welcome to chapter 7! I'm a little sad that at the review turnout, but that's ok. I don't require reviews for my stories, and I never will. I should probably mention that things will be taking a turn for the darker subjects from now on... We're walking down a tunnel, leaving the light behind us and not knowing if we'll ever see it again.

**Warnings: **Death! (kinda graphic), sexual situations

**Review replies:** HanChan - Yes! Score one for the authoress! You thought I was going to do one thing, and I totally did something different! Didn't see that one coming, right? I love twists. And no worries, you'll know exactly what Sasuke and Gaara are up to in this chapter. Mucho gracias for the review and the continued support!

Analei - Thank you for the compliment on my plotline! I actually _have_ a plot line for this story... which is a major feat for me... and to hear that its good, makes me happy. Maybe I should _plan_ my stories from now on. Thank you for lovely review!

**Vocab:** Human Trafficking - The migration of individuals within or across a national boundary for the purposes of labor, which may include sex labor, usually involving the coercion: deception, abduction, and debt bondage (Misery and Myopia, 2006)

* * *

Gaara, though upset beyond belief that his ex was here, nevertheless acted like they were like a couple. It was important that people believe that not only was he intimate with the Uchiha, but that he was a girl. If anyone suspected otherwise, he would be caught and that wasn't something he wanted to deal with. He could just imagine Naruto's face as the FBI man would find out that he had been at this club, with Sasuke Uchiha of all people. Gaara didn't know Naruto's connection to the Uchiha, but he intended on asking him when he got back home. This little 'mission' was going to be completed, and completed quickly, if he had anything to say about it. He just wanted to get out of this horrid outfit, go home and snuggle with his cute blond boyfriend. 

"Gaara," Sasuke hissed into his ear, seeing as Gaara had zoned out for a moment. "Pull it together, unless you _want_ to get caught."

Gaara scowled at the Uchiha, but then focused on walking. He took careful steps, making sure to step to the bass beat and sway his hips invitingly. Sasuke's hand drifted from Gaara's waist to his ass. The red head wanted to smack him, but knew that his cover would be blown if he did. So instead of smacking the raven haired man, he dug his acrylic nails into the man's back. Sasuke flinched but then just smiled at Gaara, squeezing the red head's ass. Gaara smiled back and leaned over to bite the Uchiha's ear, making sure to make it long and painful, but not hard enough to draw blood. Sasuke hissed and Gaara let go, finding that the two of them had reached their destination.

Richard Glease was a greasy beyond belief man. The man was slightly over weight, giving him a hefty look. He was wearing a polyester suit that looked like it had been smuggled in from the 80s. He was balding and yet there were at least ten women fawning over him. Gaara guessed that they were fawning over then man because that was their job. They were after all trafficked women. Richard Glease was a sex trafficker. He abducted poor, unsuspecting women from poor countries, where no one would miss them, and sold them to other, richer countries to be used as prostitutes in brothels. Essentially it was a slave trade. There were other forms of trafficking, like that of young children to be sold as slaves to work for companies or in households where they would be abused physically, mentally and sexually.

Glease grinned lecherously at the pair of them. Gaara reminded himself that he had to act interested in this guy, and part of his success was now resting on Sasuke, who had to act the same. Leaning over, his whispered 'follow my lead' into Sasuke's ear before giving the raven haired man a kiss on the cheek. Sasuke smiled and nodded his assent. Striding over to Glease, Gaara let his hand trail down the greasy man's arm as Gaara sat quite close. Sasuke stood in front of Glease and looked him over. Glease's grin spread. The big man stood up and motioned for the pair to follow him to a back room. The red head and the raven haired man smiled at each other before clasping hands and following Glease.

The room Gaara found himself in was white, very white. White walls, white bed, white sheets, carpet… you name it, it was white. Glease plopped down on the bed and stretched out, indicating that Gaara and Sasuke should join him. Gaara leaned over to the black haired man and whispered in his ear. Sasuke nodded in understanding as Gaara pulled away and sauntered over to the bed, Sasuke watching his ass.

Gaara put one knee on the bed and then put his other on the bed, straddling the greasy man. Glease's eyes glazed and Gaara knew that this would be a peace of cake. Nodding to Sasuke, he watched as the Uchiha sat on the edge of the bed by Gaara's knee and Glease's hip. Scooting up a bit, Gaara leaned down to nuzzle against the man's shoulder. He trailed feather light kisses up Glease's neck before latching onto an ear. Glease gasped out in pleasure and Gaara heard Sasuke unzip the man's pants. Letting his hands rest on Glease's chest, he let his right trail down Glease's stomach and up his own leg to his ass. Slipping his hand under the waistline of his skirt, Gaara grabbed cold steel, carefully watching Glease's face the whole time. The man was too caught up in his own pleasure to notice much of what Gaara was doing. As Gaara leaned forward, looking for all intents and purposes like he was going to kiss the grease ball, Glease opened his mouth. Smirking, Gaara whipped his Blacktail handgun out from behind his back and shoved it in Glease's mouth. The greasy man's eyes went wide and he tried to struggle, but found that Gaara's position wasn't for pleasure, but to hold him down, and the last Uchiha had his legs pinned. Tears ran down his face. Gaara merely smiled coldly and emotionlessly at the petrified man, and pulled the trigger.

The bullet instantly went through Richard Glease's skull and brain, bursting forth in a majestic spray of blood, brain matter, and bits of bone. There was blood seeping through the white pillow case, blood spattered on the carpet and wall, and even Gaara was decorated with a few specks. Blood was seeping into the bed, and eventually it would make its way through the box spring mattress and onto the carpeting below. The head board was spattered with bits of brain that were slowly succumbing to gravity and sliding down the white painted wood.

Gaara pulled his gun from the cooling corpse's mouth and calmly wiped it off on his black skirt before shoving it down the back of his mini skirt once more. Shutting Glease's mouth, Gaara carefully dismounted the corpse of the former sex trafficker. Standing on the ground he regarded his handiwork. The body of the former Richard Glease was lying in a room of white, even the man's polyester suit had been white, the only color in the room was now the blood spatter from the man's exploded skull.

"God… I forgot how hot it is to watch you work," Sasuke said, standing and walking to where Gaara stood assessing the situation. Hands ran up from Gaara's legs to his hips and the around to his back. Sasuke's embrace was almost disconcerting. The Uchiha got off on power and death, that much was obvious.

There was a knock on the door. Gaara shoved Sasuke away and the Uchiha cursed. Sliding up to the door, Gaara listened to a man (the butler like dude, he assumed) say that he was going to check up on Glease. Cursing colorfully, Gaara rushed over to the body.

"They're coming in to check on Glease," Gaara hissed at the black haired man. Sasuke scowled.

"Shoot them then," he replied. Gaara smacked him.

"Do you _want_ the FBI all over us?" he asked. Getting back on the bed, and re straddling Glease, Gaara started to scoot up. "Make it look like you're servicing him."

"What?!" Sasuke shouted. "I will do no such thing! He's a fucking corpse!"

Gaara instantly had his gun cocked, ready and pressed to Sasuke's temple. "Do it or you'll end up like our friend Glease here."

Sasuke scowled but did as he was told, leaning over the body, unbuttoning the pants and making it look as if he were giving the man a blow. Gaara, meanwhile and scooted up to straddle Glease's face. Leaning over the headboard, he flicked off the lamp. Darkness engulfed the room. Gaara gripped onto the head board. The knock came again.

"Action in three… two… one…" Gaara told the Uchiha and the door opened. Gaara threw back his head, forced himself to blush and acted as though the dead man were giving him head. Sasuke was making a show of bobbing his head and slurping, presumably he was sucking on his own finger to make those noises. The door was shut rather quickly and the two men still breathing heaved a sigh of relief.

Gaara flicked the light on once again and dismounted the dead body once again. Sasuke was on him in an instant, insistent mouth pressed roughly up against his own and hands sneaking up his skirt. Gaara pushed ineffectually at the Uchiha's chest, trying to get the other man off of him. Gaara's cell rang in the almost quiet of the white room. Shoving Sasuke away, Gaara bent over to lift his skirt and unstrap his phone from his inner thigh. Looking at the caller ID Gaara cursed.

"You," he said, glaring at the Uchiha. "Don't try anything."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, certain that he was going to do something now that Gaara said not to. Gaara sat on the bed and flipped his cell open.

"Hey," he said a little huskily. Sasuke sat behind him on the bed.

"_Hey!_" was Naruto's enthusiastic reply. "_I thought you said this wouldn't take too long. I was hoping we could… talk or something._"

Gaara chuckled at the not so subtle hint about at least a make out session. Sasuke's hands drifted over his arms and he slapped them away irritably.

"That sounds like a good idea," Gaara said honestly, a soft small smile gracing his lips. "I'd _love_ to … talk or something."

Naruto's chuckle was a bit husky. "_Just make sure you're brother doesn't hear you say that… he'd kill me and then you wouldn't have anyone to _talk_ to._"

"That's not exactly true, now is it Gaara," Sasuke purred in Gaara's ear that wasn't occupied by the phone. Gaara gave him a fierce glare.

"Yeah, I'd be awfully lonely without you," Gaara said truthfully. Sasuke had clasped his hands and Gaara couldn't fight back because he might drop his phone from its awkward placement on his shoulder. Sasuke knew that Gaara couldn't fight back and latched onto his neck, sucking and biting at the tender flesh. Gaara gasped.

"_Aw, that's sweet_," Naruto said and Gaara could just hear the grin that accompanied that statement. Sasuke had moved onto his ear and Gaara couldn't help the moan that come out of his mouth. "_Are you ok?_"

Gaara cursed inwardly. "Yeah, I'm fine, I just realized how late it was is all. I didn't think this would take so long."

Sasuke was smirking at him, he could just feel it, the raven haired man knew a good many of Gaara's sensitive spots and Gaara wasn't happy about it. Gaara tried to shake Sasuke off, but the other man wouldn't budge.

"_Its alright, just come home soon_," Naruto said.

"Yeah. Hey, I just figured something out that will speed this process up, so I'm gonna go and I'll be back before you know it," Gaara said, not wanting to get off the phone with his boyfriend, but knowing he had to before Sasuke made him do something stupid.

"_Alright, I'll see you soon then_," Naruto said. "_Bye._"

"Bye," Gaara said. He let the phone clatter to the floor before he slammed his head back into Sasuke's. Using the Uchiha's pain to his advantage, he slipped out of Sasuke's grasp, picked up his phone and shut it. While putting his phone back beneath his skirt, Sasuke stood up. Grabbing Gaara he pushed him roughly up against a wall and shoved a knee between Gaara's legs.

"You little bitch," he hissed. Gaara snarled at him, squirming in his grip. "You're mine, you hear that?"

"Get your fucking hands off of me! I'll rip your balls off!" Gaara yelled. Sasuke ground his knee up into Gaara's groin and the red head's head fell back against the wall, not wanting to feel pleasure, but feeling it anyway.

Sasuke suddenly broke away, seemingly remembering they were at the scene of a crime. He looked at the body of Richard Glease.

"Don't you have some tracks to cover?" he asked Gaara. Gaara sneered, but pulled out his handy bottle of bleach from one cup of his bra, and a baggy filled with sand and bottle of ammonia from the other cup. "What about fingerprints?"

Gaara shrugged. "I didn't touch his skin. I'm more concerned about the DNA evidence."

Gaara shoved the bottle of ammonia at Sasuke. Sasuke scowled, but started to pour it on whatever he had touched. Gaara carefully picked up all stray hairs before he doused the top half of Glease's body in bleach. After pouring out the sand from the bag onto Glease's body, he put the stray hairs in the now empty baggy.

"In any case," Gaara said, putting the bottles back in his bra and holding onto the bag of hair. "There have got to be about fifty people's finger prints on that body. The odds of them finding one of mine, or yours is slim."

"I still don't like it," Sasuke said.

"Then you rub him down with a sheet," Gaara said. Sasuke took a tissue, careful not to touch the box, grabbed the sheet with it, and rubbed the body down in an effort to remove any fingerprints.

"Now what?" Sasuke asked. Gaara blinked at him.

"Now we leave you Neanderthal," Gaara said holding out a hand for Sasuke. Sasuke took his hand, the bag of hair between their clasped hands. Sasuke rubbed down the doorknob with his tissue and then opened the door. The two of them pushed their way through the throngs of people and left through a side exit. Gaara let go of Sasuke's hand.

"Give me your lighter," Gaara demanded. Sasuke looked offended.

"What makes you think I still smoke?" he asked.

"Just give me your damned lighter!" Gaara snarled. Sasuke scowled and handed over his Zippo. Gaara snuck back into the club and positioned himself by a fire alarm. Flipping open the lighter he flicked it and a little flame appeared. He looked around, to make sure no one was paying him any attention, and set his little bag of hair on fire. The resulting smoke and stench was enough to set off the alarm and sprinkler system. Dashing out of the club, Gaara wasn't surprised to see that Sasuke had already bolted. Gaara made his way through the mass of people exiting the club and made his way to his rented car.

-------------------

Gaara arrived back home around 10:30 at night. He put his BMW into the three car garage, and entered into the house through the connecting door in the garage. Quickly ditching his costume in the laundry room, he walked into the hallway connecting the front room to the living room. He greeted his siblings, who were sitting on opposite ends of the couch, obviously having had an argument concerning where Shikamaru was sleeping. Temari smiled softly at him while Kankuro gave him a wave.

"How was work?" Temari asked hesitantly. Gaara shrugged.

"It was easy… but I ran into some trouble, with a capital U," Gaara said, scowling. Temari winced, but Kankuro remained clueless, Gaara had never told him about the last Uchiha.

"Don't you mean a capital T?" Kankuro asked, oblivious to what Gaara was hinting at. Temari rolled her eyes.

"Do you want me to tell him?" she asked. Gaara shook his head.

"Maybe at a later date, when he won't kick my boyfriend out of my room for it," Gaara said. Temari made a face.

"How come his boyfriend can stay in his room but my fiancé can't stay in mine?" Temari asked. Kankuro turned his nose up at her.

"Who would have ever thought he even _have_ a boyfriend?" Kankuro asked. Temari scowled. "Besides… he's have no qualms over killing me if I said that Naruto couldn't stay in his room."

"And I _have_ qualms about killing you?" Temari asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, but at least I know that I can at least keep you from killing me," Kankuro said. Temari heaved a sigh. "You might want to go see that blond dobe of yours Gaara; he won't go to sleep until you go to him."

Gaara nodded and headed to the stairs. As he was ascending the staircase he was coming up with a plausible alibi. He knew that Naruto having talked to him at the time of the murder was a good alibi for the FBI, but he needed a good alibi to tell the FBI man in his room.

Walking down the hallway he stopped in front of the door to his room. Sighing, he opened the door and entered the room, closing the door behind him. Instantly Naruto had him in a bear hug and was kissing his face. Gaara couldn't help but smile at his enthusiastic boyfriend.

"Hey Naruto," he said, leaning up to kiss the blond on the lips. Naruto eagerly returned the kiss.

"Hey there sexy," Naruto replied, running his hands all over Gaara's body. Gaara loved how Naruto's hands felt on him. "How was work?"

"It was work," Gaara replied. "Lots and lots of paperwork."

"Ugh, I hate paperwork. It's my least favorite part of my job. I'm more of a… hands on sort of guy," Naruto said, waggling his eyebrows suggestively and grabbing Gaara's ass to make his point. Gaara just rolled his eyes and kissed the blond before breaking out of the embrace. Striding over to his bed, he sat down and patted the space beside him, indicating that Naruto should sit next to him. Naruto eagerly plopped down beside him.

"Naruto… can I asked you something?" Gaara asked.

"Yeah, you can ask me anything!" Naruto replied grinning for all that he was worth.

"What are the Uchihas to you?" Gaara asked. The smile instantly fell from Naruto's face.


	8. Chapter 8

**If:** Ironically, I find that I totally suck at writing over the weekend... how weird is that? Maybe its just that I get distracted by other things (Zombies)... Mucho gracias for the reviews! I totally appreciate it! ... I got nothing else to say...

**Warnings: **Sasuke (?) and plot

**Review replies: **Lena - What's Sasuke up to? Oh I'm sure its something devious. He gets his own little warning. He deserves it, I've made him psychotic! Not that he's not psychotic anyway... But we'll have to wait a while for Sasuke's evil plan. He's still formulating it, and it will probably take some time to prepare and all that. But anyway, thanks for the review! I appreciate it!

* * *

"_What are the Uchihas to you?_"

The one question that Naruto wasn't sure he could ever answer was, of course, the one question that his beloved boyfriend would ask. Naruto really didn't want to think about what they _used_ to mean to him, but he was sure that's what Gaara meant. The red head was probably curious as to why he had flown to Arizona just because Uchiha Itachi had been murdered. Sighing, the blonde resigned himself to his fate.

"Well… Itachi's not really the Uchiha I'm interested in," Naruto said truthfully. Gaara's eyes widened marginally. "I'm actually after his brother Sasuke. Sasuke was the one who murdered Itachi, and he's also the one who dropped everything to go chasing after Itachi."

"Dropped everything?" Gaara questioned. Naruto winced.

"Yeah… It's a long story, and I don't want to bore you," Naruto said quickly, wanting to change the subject, but it seemed that Gaara did not.

"Its not like we don't have a lot of time on our hands," the red head said. "I don't have anything to do other than listen to you."

Naruto still hesitated, so Gaara decided to add some incentive. "I'll tell you stuff about me, if you tell me about you and the Uchiha."

Naruto still looked apprehensive, but eventually his curiosity about the red head won out over his hesitation in telling his tale about him and the Uchiha. He eventually nodded his head in agreement.

"Alright, but I want some juicy information in exchange for some of my most painful memories," Naruto said. Gaara nodded.

"Trust me Naruto, I can beat you in painful memories," Gaara muttered. Naruto frowned at his boyfriend, but the red head just nudged him, encouraging him to talk. Heaving an overly dramatic sigh, Naruto started.

"I've known Sasuke since I was six. We were best friends starting at age twelve, since he ignored me before then. When he was fifteen his family was murdered. And when I say family, I mean close relatives and far relatives. All of them. Wiped out. It was his brother who killed them all, and he left Sasuke alive because he deemed his own brother unworthy of dying with his family. After that, Sasuke wasn't the same. He became an emo little bitch. He couldn't get over his tragic loss. I know it sounds kind of harsh that I'm saying he should just get over it, but he can't just live in the past like that. Everyone eventually gets over that stuff… but not Sasuke. Right after we graduated he dropped off the map. He left a note saying he was going to find his brother and hunt him down and kill him. It also said that I shouldn't look for him," Naruto started. Gaara nodded in understanding. "But we weren't just… friends."

Gaara stiffened at Naruto's side and the blond didn't miss the sudden tensing of his boyfriend. He looked a little guilty and suddenly found his hands more interesting that Gaara's face as he pushed onwards.

"It was so long ago… I know that I nearly loved that bastard. But I don't love him anymore, how could I? I wasn't important enough to stay around for, so why should I cling to those feelings, but even so, I couldn't just let him go. I joined the FBI for all the wrong reasons; I wanted to be able to track him down. Even though I did it all wrong, I found myself liking my job more and more. Sasuke was still a priority, but I had other things to do as well. That's how I met you. I had to shove Sasuke to the side and start watching you because you were suspected of being the Sandman," Naruto said, hoping he had been able to calm the red head. He must have succeeded because Gaara laid his head on Naruto's shoulder.

"What do you feel for him now?" Gaara asked softly. Naruto gazed at the ceiling, lost in thought.

"I don't know, but I still have that strong urge to get him back but I think that I want to put him behind bars now, not gather him up into my arms and tell him how stupid he's been. I think I'd like to hit him for all the shit he's put me and my friends through," Naruto said. Gaara nodded in agreement, the Uchiha definitely needed to get smacked around.

"Is there anything else you want to know, since I get to hear all of your secrets?" Naruto asked, poking Gaara's side, demeanor instantly changing to chipper. Gaara rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, tell me a little about your childhood," Gaara said.

"Hmm… there's not much to say. My parents died a month after I was born, so I grew up in an orphanage until I was adopted by my fifth grade teacher, Umino Iruka," Naruto said. He nodded. "I didn't really have friends until I was twelve, and I only dated Sasuke when we were seniors."

"… Wow… that was almost informative," Gaara said sardonically. Naruto stuck his tongue out at the red head.

"Well there's not much to say. It wasn't a happy time in my life, and I'm glad it's over," the blond said. Gaara nodded. "Your turn!"

"Don't say I didn't warn you," Gaara told the blond before he started. "My mother died in childbirth, bringing me into the world with her death. My father blamed me for her death. Thusly, he beat me. My uncle took care of me until I was six, when he tried to murder me and I accidentally ended up killing him instead. I spent a year in mental facility after that. When I came back, my father started beating me again with a vengeance, clearly making up for lost time. My siblings were afraid of me, I got into a lot of fights, and everyone avoided me like the plague, afraid that I'd kill them. When I was twelve my father was murdered and the first person who was suspected was me. I didn't kill him, and it was proven in the court of law, but a lot of people are still convinced that I did kill him. I inherited my father's multi-billion dollar company, and have been running it since I was fifteen. I had a stormy love affair last year that didn't end up well at all."

Naruto pouted. "You added that last part to get back at me for the Sasuke thing, didn't you?"

Gaara smirked. "Partly. I also wanted you to know that even though I seem to act like it around you; I'm not some little virgin bitch who's going to break if you handle me rough."

Naruto blushed bright red. "Well you certainly seemed like a virgin, no offense."

"None taken… my brother doesn't even know that I had a fling with some bastard last year," Gaara said nonchalantly. Naruto giggled.

"You certainly insult this guy an awful lot," Naruto said. Gaara sneered.

"He's a self-centered, self-righteous bastard. He used me, and I'm not happy about it," Gaara told Naruto. Naruto saw the pain and hurt cross Gaara's face briefly.

"You really liked him, didn't you?" Naruto asked a little hesitantly. Gaara paused and then nodded slightly.

"… I did… but lord knows I don't want anything to do with him any more. He can go to hell for all I care. The jackass "bumped" into me tonight. Jerk seemed to think that he could just wander back into my life after he finished his own little journey of self-assurance and that I'd be waiting for him with open arms. Boy did he get a surprise. Jackass…" Gaara said. Naruto decided he didn't like this guy Gaara had been with.

"Sure sounds like a jerk," Naruto said. Gaara nodded and wrapped his arms around the blond.

"But now I have you, and he won't bother me anymore," Gaara said, nuzzling into Naruto's neck. The blond chuckled.

"Yeah, you've got me by my balls alright," Naruto said, Gaara snorted. "You'll never get rid of me now that I have you."

Gaara smiled at Naruto and the blond felt his heart stop at the sight. The red head looked absolutely gorgeous.

"Nothing will take you from me," Naruto said, leaning down to kiss his boy.

_Really Naruto? I have a feeling that once you find out exactly who I am you won't love me anymore_, Gaara thought to himself.

-------------------

Sasuke was cursing to himself in his run down motel room. He couldn't go anywhere nice because he would instantly be recognized and the FBI would be notified. He hated living like this, but he had to do it, at least in the states. The state of his motel wasn't the only thing that had him upset though; it was the fact that Gaara was rejecting him. The red head had pushed him away, and whoever he had been talking to on the phone had made him smile. SMILE! Gaara never smiled. Sasuke certainly couldn't make him smile, not that he had stuck around long enough to see if he could. He could see why the red head might be angry at him; he had ditched him for a lead on Itachi after all. Sasuke could understand some form of annoyance, but to just ditch him for some other guy? The red head had had a hard enough time opening up to Sasuke, the physical chemistry was like fire, they hadn't been able to keep their hands off one another, but Gaara didn't want to become emotionally attached. Gaara had gotten attached, and Sasuke had left, and Sasuke couldn't see how the red head could have become so attached to someone already.

Gaara was **His** after all. **He** owned him. He had let Gaara claim his body, submitting to his every will, and in exchange he had taken the red head's heart. **He** was the only one who was allowed to hold that lithe body, the only one to feel the heat between their bodies; he was the only one who was supposed to see the face the red head made as he reached his peak. No slut was going to take what was rightfully his away from him. Gaara was **his** and he would be damned if he let anyone take what was **his**.

A plan started to form in his mind. It would be complicated, and it might make the red head hate him for a while, but in the end Gaara would come to realize that Sasuke was the one for him, not someone else. Sasuke cackled, the psychotic sound reverberating in the dingy room.

-------------------

The morning was almost bittersweet to Gaara. On the one hand, he had told Naruto about his past, and that was bad. Him telling Naruto about himself meant that he was becoming too attached to the blond. He didn't want a repeat of what had happened with Sasuke, and he most definitely didn't want Naruto to leave him once he figured out who he really was. Gaara's personality was very different around Naruto. Naruto influenced him in so many ways. Gaara wasn't sure if it was a good thing that Naruto had this much influence over him. It was risky, and it could get him into trouble, especially if Naruto called during one of his "jobs" once again. Gaara cringed; the shit could really hit the fan if Naruto called before… Gaara shook his head; he'd just have to turn his phone off while he was working.

Turning is head to the side; he looked at the blond angel fast asleep next to him. Naruto was just as loud asleep as he was awake. The blond was splayed over the entire bed, one leg dangling off the bed and one arm thrown across Gaara. The red head could only smile. Slipping out of the bed, and out of Naruto's semi-embrace, the red head stood up. Slipping on slippers, grabbing a sweatshirt and pulling it over his head, he ventured from the room, quietly closing the door behind him. Traversing the hallway, and making his way down the stairs and into the kitchen, Gaara was about to ask what was for breakfast when he noticed what his siblings were watching on the television.

"_In other news, sex trafficker Richard Glease was found dead in the club Green Bird this morning. The back of his head was blown away, causing investigators to conclude that someone shot him through his mouth. There was no evidence at the scene of the crime to identify whoever had committed this heinous crime. The only clue as to the murderer's identity was the sand poured over his chest,_" the reporter was saying. Gaara blinked at the TV. Arms wrapped around his waist and a kiss was placed on his cheek. Gaara looked at Naruto. "_I've just gotten a confirmation from the police chief; the murder of Richard Glease is officially the work of the Sandman._"

"Son of a bitch!" Naruto cursed, causing Gaara to flinch. Rubbing his hands soothingly over Naruto's arms, Gaara tried to calm the blond. "Damn it! This means I'll be working two cases at once!"

"… Really?" Gaara asked he was a bit confused at the situation. "They'd keep you on both of these big cases?"

"Are you saying I'm incapable of working these cases?" Naruto asked suspiciously. Gaara shook his head vehemently in the negative. Naruto smiled at him. "I'm just pulling your leg. Besides, you're probably right, they might just take me off one."

"Which do you think they'd take you off of?" Gaara asked, inwardly hoping it would be his own case.

"Hmm… I don't know. Odds are we aren't going to catch Sasuke any time soon, and they've been after the Sandman for years… but Sasuke won't kill again," Naruto said. Gaara inwardly cursed. "They'd probably take me off the Uchiha case… but then again, the Uchiha case is my first case and the Sandman case is my secondary… but who knows, it's pointless to try and figure it out."

Gaara shrugged. Naruto smiled and kissed the red head. Gaara wrapped his arms around Naruto's neck and held him close even as the kiss ended. Naruto chuckled.

"You don't have to hold on so tight Gaara, I'm not going to leave you, you know," Naruto said with a goofy grin. Gaara half-smiled at him.

"You never know…" he muttered. Naruto heard his admission and swept him off his feet, twirling him around; Gaara had to tighten his grip in his surprise.

"I'm not going to let you go, you're too precious to me. Even if you were a homicidal maniac, or a married man, or even a transvestite, I don't care. I have you now and I'm never going to let go of you. You'd best remember that. You're stuck with me for the rest of your life," Naruto proclaimed. Gaara blushed and looked away from the passionate blond. "I won't hurt you."

Gaara wanted to believe that, he wanted to believe in Naruto. He wanted so desperately to believe the words that the blond said, but he just couldn't let himself fall into that trap again. Too many people had said he was special to them and had ditched him, or tried to kill him. He just couldn't trust Naruto, even if the blond really believed the words that he had just said.

"I'm going to go get dressed. I probably missed a call yelling at me to get my ass down to the scene of the crime… the FBI never stops for anything, even breakfast," Naruto said. He gave Gaara a quick kiss and then went back to the bedroom to change. Gaara's eyes followed him as he disappeared down the hallway.

"He's a keeper," Kankuro said from his seat on the couch. Gaara rolled his eyes at his older brother. "I'm serious! He's perfect! You could tell him you were the Sandman and he would still love you."

"He'd also throw me in jail for a very long time," Gaara said. "Don't forget that he's hunting down the Sandman, and love or no love he's still got a job to do."

"Pish. I doubt he'd do that. He wouldn't be able to live without you around," Kankuro countered. Gaara scowled.

"You don't even know him," Gaara said. Kankuro laughed.

"Yeah, but even I can see that he'd do anything for you!" Kankuro said, he stood up and went into the kitchen. "Face it Gaara, there isn't anything you could do to get that boy to leave you."

"Yeah Gaara," Temari said, adding her own two cents to the conversation. "You could slip up with the big U and he wouldn't care."

"… Naruto used to date Sasuke," Gaara muttered loud enough for Temari to hear. The blond's mouth hung open, a look of pure shock on her face. Kankuro's brow was furrowed.

"Who's…?" Kankuro never got to finish his sentence as Gaara clasped a hand over the older boy's mouth.

"Bye Gaara!" Naruto shouted from the doorway. Gaara waited until the door had opened and then shut again before uncovering his brother's mouth.

"What the hell was that for?!" Kankuro exclaimed. Gaara glared at him.

"You cannot tell Naruto anything I'm about to tell you," Gaara said. Kankuro nodded eagerly. "I had a… thing with a guy named Sasuke Uchiha last year. It ended badly and he's a bastard. He's also the big U we refer too."

Gaara motioned between his self and Temari, who nodded dumbly still a bit in shock from Gaara's earlier comment. "It seems that Naruto also dated Sasuke at one point in time, and has been trying to track down the jerk for years. Sasuke's the reason he joined the FBI."

"Dude…" Kankuro said. "Damn! You already had a boyfriend and you didn't tell me? I'm so sad!"

"… I didn't think you'd like that I had fucked a guy," Gaara said. Kankuro flushed as did Temari.

"You didn't even tell me you lost your virginity?!" Kankuro exclaimed. Gaara sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Temari, I think you should see if he's bipolar," Gaara said. Temari nodded.

"I think we should too… and wow Gaara. This could be problematic," she said. Gaara nodded.

"Especially since the Uchiha seems to want me back now that Itachi's dead," Gaara said, seething. "Bastard."

"Wait, you talked to this guy recently?" Kankuro said, holding his hands up to stop the conversation.

"I bumped into him last night, he got me in the club and helped me take out Glease, and he also tried to molest me… I swear I'm going to cut his balls off…" Gaara growled. Kankuro scowled.

"Sounds like a jerk. Why the hell'd you fuck 'im?" he asked. Gaara narrowed his eyes at his brother.

"Because he wasn't a jerk when I met him… also, he's very hot," Gaara said. Kankuro rolled his eyes.

"What are you going to do if you see him again?" he asked seriously. Gaara's face was determined.

"I'm gonna tell him who my boyfriend is and tell him that if I ever see his face again I'll tell said boyfriend all about him," Gaara replied. Kankuro furrowed his brow, why was Gaara somewhat protecting this guy?


	9. Chapter 9

**If:** Life got in the way of me updating this sooner... so my apologies. And HOLY CRAP! Thanks for the reviews! Much appreciated, makes me think I'm doing something right...

**Warnings:** Blood, gore, Sasuke...

* * *

It took Naruto a week to get both the Itachi murder and the Glease murder under wraps. By then Gaara had gotten his paper work done and gotten his multi-billion dollar corporation back on track. Now the red head was obsessed with the Wii he had bought himself three days ago. Naruto sighed, he had created a monster, but at least Gaara could theoretically buy him anything he wanted, seeing as the bastard was freaking rich! Naruto would never ask Gaara for anything anyway, even if he really wanted an Xbox…

They had flown home to Massachusetts three days after Naruto's cases were under control, Gaara bringing his precious Wii with him. Naruto had to admit, even if the graphics weren't great, the Wii was certainly a lot of fun. Unfortunately for him, Gaara had discovered Resident Evil 4, and was now trying to eliminate every zombie and collect every single piece of treasure he could. Naruto was hoping this was just a phase, seeing as Gaara wasn't paying him much attention since he was too busy killing zombies.

The rest of the week passed quietly. Gaara finished killing his zombies, which Naruto was grateful for since now Gaara would actually acknowledge his presence, but now he was going through it a second time with his "super" weapons and slaughtering the zombies. The two had gone on their first official "date" on that Thursday, which had been really nice. They had gone to Gaara's favorite restaurant and a movie, Resident Evil of course (Naruto was beginning to suspect Gaara had an obsession with zombies…). Then they had gone back to Naruto's place, since Gaara had never been there, and Naruto had forced the red head to watch An Affair to Remember. Gaara hated romance and/or chick flicks, but even he had tears in his eyes at the end. He had also decided that Cary Grant was the best actor in existent, and insisted that the two of them watch another Cary Grant movie next weekend. Naruto had been ecstatic. He told Gaara that they would watch Suspicion, which was also an Alfred Hitchcock film. Gaara had been so excited that he had tackled Naruto and kissed him all over; apparently the red head loved Alfred Hitchcock films.

It was the Tuesday after their date, and Naruto was finally getting a chance to see the red head again. Work had been getting in the way, Sasuke had been leaving a rather obvious trail and Naruto was sure that soon they'd be onto him. While the blond was excited about finally dragging Sasuke in after all this time, there were some details that were nagging him. Like the black hair they had found on Richard Glease's body. The DNA from the hair was unusable, thanks to ammonia, but the FBI knew that the Sandman was a red head. In his earlier years, the Sandman wasn't quite as crafty as he was now, and had left clues as to his identity, but due to some mishaps with the local police, some misplaced evidence, and contamination of crime scenes, they had never been able to figure out who the Sandman was before he became a smarter killer.

Sasuke's trail had led straight to the Green Bird the night of Glease's murder, and the black hair made Naruto think that maybe he had been there that night. But why would Sasuke be around Glease? Or why would he be around the Sandman? It didn't make sense. The Sandman was a loner, and Sasuke had only wanted to kill his brother, so why would he be there? But the evidence linked him to that crime, Naruto was sure of it. He couldn't prove it, but he just knew that Sasuke had been there. The only question left, was why?

Naruto pulled out the key Gaara had given to him and opened the door to the apartment building that had recently upped their security. As he made his way through the hallways and up the stairs to his boyfriend's apartment, he pondered Sasuke's connection to the Richard Glease crime. As he walked in through Gaara's front door, he noticed a bag sitting on the floor by the door frame.

"Gaara?" Naruto called out. The red head poked his head out of his kitchen.

"Hey Naruto," he said and went back into the kitchen, clearly distracted by something. Naruto followed him into the kitchen and discovered…

"RAMEN!!" the blond shouted. He rushed over to the waiting bowl and sat down, inhaling his most favorite food. Gaara just watched him for a moment, shock and disgust playing across his fair features. Naruto was already done with the bowl that had been on the table. "That was the best ramen ever!"

Gaara blinked at his boyfriend. "… I made it from scratch… and aren't you supposed to eat that slowly?"

Naruto beamed at his boyfriend. "You made it Gaara?! Really?!"

Gaara soon found an ecstatic blond in his arms. Naruto was nuzzling him and almost purring. Gaara twitched, but enjoyed it nonetheless.

"Naruto… get off me. I need to get the rest of the ramen off the stove," he ordered. The blond instantly backed away, stars shining in his eyes.

"There's more?!" he exclaimed before rushing back to his seat. Holding up his bowl, with a cheeky smile on his lips he asked. "Seconds?"

Gaara rolled his eyes and carried the heavy pot to the table. Setting the pot on his hot plate, he grabbed a ladle and put more ramen in Naruto's bowl. The blond thanked him profusely and started to inhale his second bowl. Gaara grabbed his own bowl, which was empty, and ladled some ramen into it. Setting down his bowl, he pulled his seat next to Naruto's and sat down to eat his own ramen. 6 bowls of ramen later, Naruto finally wondered why his boyfriend was being so nice to him.

"Gaara… why'd you make ramen?" the blond asked. Gaara turned his head away guiltily.

"Naruto… I have to go on a trip for about a week," Gaara finally said after an awkward silence. Naruto pouted.

"Why?" he finally asked, disappointed that he wouldn't be able to see his beloved boyfriend for a while.

"Business trip, one of the branches of the company is having trouble and they want me to straighten it out," Gaara replied, still not looking at the blond. Naruto pouted, but could see that his boyfriend really didn't want to go. Scooting his chair over so that he was right next to Gaara he put his arms around his boyfriend.

"It's ok… I understand that the company is important, just like I know you understand that my cases are important. Where will you be anyway?" Naruto asked. Gaara frowned.

"I'll be in India," he said. Naruto chuckled. Gaara gave him a quizzical look.

"Sorry… it's just, doesn't everyone outsource to India?" Naruto asked, smile on his face. Gaara rolled his eyes again.

"I'm not outsourcing, we have a sister company there and we hired all Indians to work with the Indian populace. We also support several surrounding communities. I believe in giving back to the people, my company may be worth billions, but we no longer turn profits. Our stock will stay the same, for as long as I have a say in it. I want places to be better because we're there, not worse," Gaara said. Naruto gave him a soft smile and kissed him on the cheek.

"You're a real humanitarian, you know that?" he asked. Gaara let out a snort.

"I just believe that the world could be a better place, no one deserves to go through what the third world goes through," Gaara said determinedly. Naruto nodded emphatically.

"Well… I guess I won't see you for a week… which sucks," the blond said after a while of comfortable silence. "I say we make the best of the time we have."

Gaara's left eye ticked as Naruto waggled his eyebrows suggestively. "I'm not having sex with you just because I'm leaving for a week."

Naruto pouted. "Aww… you ruined it. Why haven't we had sex again?"

Gaara cracked a small smile. "We agreed to wait because I wanted to make sure that I really want you around for… forever, since I have a feeling you'll never leave my side if I do have sex with you…"

Naruto chuckled. "Well you got that right."

"Exactly, so I'm not going to lead you on, and you're not going to pressure me," Gaara finished. Naruto sighed but nodded.

"I understand, but that doesn't mean I like it… you have no idea how much I want you," Naruto purred. Gaara flushed and unwittingly backed up a bit. Naruto grinned lecherously.

"When's your flight?" the blond asked as he vacated his seat to straddle Gaara's lap. Gaara blushed and Naruto started to caress his shoulders.

"In two hours," the red head said, looking at the clock on the wall. Naruto's grin grew.

"Well… I think we've got just enough time for a quick make out session, now don't we?" he asked, leaning in to kiss along Gaara's jaw. Gaara opened his mouth to reply, but Naruto cut him off with a kiss.

* * *

Two hours later, Gaara's flight was taking off right on time. Gaara disliked fibbing to Naruto, but knew he couldn't say that he was going to India to assassinate yet another person. He was starting to worry about his 'second' job. He had signed a contract last year, to take out someone he really didn't like at the time, and now he wasn't so sure about it. Unfortunately for Gaara, the man he had taken out the contract with had many connections. If Gaara didn't take out this target soon, his own life could be forfeit. Gaara really didn't want to make Naruto sad, but even if he did take his target out, the blond wouldn't be happy. Sighing in frustration, Gaara closed his eyes and thought about his current mission: yet another sleazebag doing crimes that should have put him behind bars, but he was still up and about. Gaara didn't like arms dealers, and this guy was one of the biggest in India. The only thing Gaara regretted about his 'second' job was that he couldn't punish corporations for their crimes. Gaara made sure that his company did all that it could to make the world a better place, for everyone, not just for the stock holders. Gaara hated the stock holders and ignored whatever they said, he didn't care what they thought, it was his company, and he was going to do what he wanted with it. If they didn't like his policy, then they could sell their stocks. 

Many hours later, Gaara's flight had landed and he took a cab to his hotel. It would take him two days to get actual company business straightened out, but he was going to do that after his other job. Grumbling since this once again required him to don a disguise, Gaara pulled out the black hair dye he had bought back in the states. An hour later he had black hair.

Pulling on tight leather pants and a white tank top, Gaara applied his eyeliner and left his hotel room for the club his target was sure to be at. The arms dealer apparently had a thing for black haired boys. It didn't matter if you dyed your hair, so long as it was black. Getting in the club was easy; Gaara knew that he was a "hot piece of ass" and had learned to "flaunt" it years ago. Since there were a lot of black haired people (which made sense since it was India) he would have to "work it," and "work it" he did. The bouncer let him in quickly with a lingering look and hands itching to touch his body.

Gaara weaved through the crowds, like the experienced crowd surfer that he was. He saw the man on the other side of the room. Ignoring the hands that reached out for him, he made his way across the room. When he deemed himself close enough, he started to dance. Wandering hands caressed his body, but he ignored them. He was dancing to gain the attention of the arms dealer, not for anyone else. His movements were precise, sensual, and seductive, causing most of the people surrounding him to want him. Soon the entire club was focused on him. Gaara was suddenly thankful for his years of practice, and study of modern music videos. Dancing seductively was a great asset. He knew the arms dealer was watching him. Gaara made sure to let the arms dealer know that he knew that he was watching, and slid his hands all over his body. Soon enough a man escorted him over to the dealer.

"How would you like to help me break in one of my new boys?" the dealer asked, he couldn't have been more than twenty seven. He was Indian, with dark skin and a muscular body. Gaara nodded at the man and tried a seductive smile which he had picked up from Naruto. The smile seemed to work, because soon he was in a limo with the arms dealer and several other black haired boys.

It was a fifteen minute ride to the dealer's mansion, during which the boys threw themselves at one another. Gaara staid in his seat next to the dealer and cast furtive looks his way, slowly scooting his hand to and onto the man's leg. The dealer smirked at him and slipped an arm around Gaara's waist, his hand sliding into Gaara's pants and grabbing onto his alabaster skin. Gaara made a show of moaning and leaning into the man's side. The dealer pushed his hand further into Gaara's pants and squeezed his ass. Gaara moaned right by the dealer's ear before sucking on the lobe. The limo stopped at the mansion.

"You are one cunning minx," the deal told Gaara as the exited the limo. Gaara gave him a seductive smirk, which he had gotten from Naruto, and winked at him.

"I couldn't help myself," he said fluently. The dealer's smirk grew and he pulled Gaara close to his side, arm wrapped around Gaara's waist. Gaara rested a hand on the dealer's chest and looked at him, trying to make it seem as though he adored the dealer.

As they walked into the mansion, Gaara took stock of his surroundings, paying attention to every tiny detail while keeping the dealer under the impression that he was in awe of his surroundings. The dealer dropped the other boys off in a large room with white curtains that had several other boys in there already. Gaara watched as they immediately started to molest one another, trying desperately to get the dealer's attention. The dealer ignored them all and led Gaara up the spiral stair case to a secluded room on the second floor.

The dealer opened the door and ushered Gaara into the room, closing the door behind him. On the bed sat an irate black haired boy. Gaara twitched; glad his back was to the dealer and scowled at the boy before turning to the dealer.

"**This** is your new boy?" he asked, voice dropping to a lower octave, causing both inhabitants of the room to shiver. The dealer nodded.

"Yes… this is," he said. He walked over to the bed and tilted the boy's face to Gaara. "Can you believe I got my hands on the infamous Uchiha Sasuke?"

Gaara's smile was forced, but neither the dealer nor Sasuke seemed to notice. "I most certainly cannot. How did you manage such a feat?"

"Trade secret," the dealer said, letting go of Sasuke and walking over to Gaara once again. He let his hands trail up and down Gaara's torso and Gaara threw his head back, pretending to enjoy it. "I would love for you to break him in."

Gaara smirked. "But wouldn't you like to join us?"

The dealer's smile grew. He looked between both boys before replying. "Most definitely after you break him in. I can't resist the sight of two beautiful boys pleasuring each other into a state of euphoric bliss."

Gaara smirked. He walked over to the bed and pushed Sasuke back onto it. He pushed his way between the black haired boy's legs and kept his hands on Sasuke's chest to keep him lying down.

"Your wish is my command," Gaara said. Leaning forward he let Sasuke get a good look at his face before he kissed him. Sasuke moaned and returned the kiss with a passion. Gaara got out from between Sasuke's legs and motioned for him to lie fully on the bed, instead of having his legs dangle awkwardly over the edge. Sasuke immediately did it. The dealer quietly pulled a chair up to watch the show as Gaara got onto the bed, straddling Sasuke's legs. He ran his hands up Sasuke's chest, pulling up the shirt as he went. Sasuke lifted his arms and the shirt was flung to the side. Gaara leaned down and started to suck on Sasuke's collar bone. Sliding a knee up, he ground it into Sasuke's groin, feeling something hard already there that most definitely wasn't a cock. Gaara smirked against Sasuke's neck, nipping at it harshly. Trust Sasuke to get impatient and steal a gun from an arms dealer.

The dealer moaned as he stroked himself through his pants at the sight of Gaara starting to unbutton Sasuke's pants, sucking on his stomach. Gaara had done this with Sasuke before, not just the sex part, but the misguiding of a target part. Kissing down to Sasuke's pant line, Gaara bit onto Sasuke's zipper and pulled it down. Gaara then re-straddled Sasuke's hips and leant down and kissed him. As an all out war raged in Sasuke's mouth, Gaara's hand slipped down his abdomen and into Sasuke's boxers. Sasuke gasped and pulled away from the kiss. Gaara tried to keep his hand away from Sasuke's cock, but it was rather hard considering it was right beneath the gun. Gaara felt the gun up; surprised it had a silencer on it. Looking at Sasuke's pleasure contorted face, and the glazed eyes of the arms dealer, Gaara grabbed the gun and pulled it out of Sasuke's pants. He pointed it right at the dealer's neck, switched off the safety and shot the dealer.

In a beautiful explosion of blood and flesh, the dealer's neck exploded. Gaara had gone straight through the main artery and had torn off part of the man's neck. The dealer's eyes were wide and he could only stare at the black haired boy that had shot him before he passed out and died from blood loss. Gaara put the gun on the bed and gave Sasuke a hard stare.

"You picked a powerful gun," he remarked. Sasuke could only stare at him open mouthed. Gaara sneered. "I can't believe you got yourself caught by this sleaze bag."

Sasuke's arms were instantly around his neck and suddenly his lips were pressed against the black haired boys. Sasuke moaned and pressed his hips up against the Sandman's, causing him to groan in return.


	10. Chapter 10

**If:** ... I'm sorry. I had the week from hell and could not update. Never fear though, I'll be updating over the weekend. Getting sucked into other fandoms and school work are hard to get around... damn you "Was it out of Pity?" and "Short Stories with Tragic Endings"...

Um... this totally didn't turn out as planned, but I like how it turned out so... BEWARE!

**Warnings: **smutty! (and not the good NaruGaa kind), Sasuke! (still an obsessive jerk), advancing plot

**Review reply:** HanChan - Isn't Sasuke the worst? He just can't keep his hands to himself. And yes, I'm evil with cliffhangers at times...

* * *

"You picked a powerful gun," he remarked. Sasuke could only stare at him open mouthed. Gaara sneered. "I can't believe you got yourself caught by this sleaze bag."

Sasuke's arms were instantly around his neck and suddenly his lips were pressed against the black haired boys. Sasuke moaned and pressed his hips up against the Sandman's, causing him to groan in return.

With Sasuke's hands tangling in his hair and Sasuke's legs spread beneath him, the Sandman couldn't seem to focus. A leg was wrapped around his waist, and pulled his hips down to meet the Uchiha's. The Sandman was having a hard time holding himself up, and was having an even harder time trying to remember why he was supposed to be resisting the sex addict beneath him. One of Sasuke's hands left his hair and slid down his chest. Deft fingers unbuttoned the leather pants and slid the zipper down. The second those skilled fingers dipped below his boxers though, the Sandman snapped out of his lust induced stupor. Pulling his face away from Sasuke's, grabbing the wrist of the Uchiha, and pulling the hand out from his drawers, Gaara scowled at Sasuke.

"God damn you Uchiha," Gaara growled. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

Sasuke pouted and thrust his hips upward, causing Gaara to groan. "I'm trying to get you to fuck me, is what I'm doing."

Gaara's scowl only deepened. "Didn't I tell you to fuck off the last time I saw you?"

"No, though you did threaten me… but you never told me to fuck off or even to leave you alone," Sasuke said, letting his free hand slip under Gaara's shirt. Gaara's eyes narrowed but he couldn't stop Sasuke without losing his balance. "And didn't I tell you that you were mine?"

Gaara sneered at the last Uchiha. "You have no claim over me. I moved on. I have a boyfriend, and he loves me."

Sasuke scoffed at that statement. "Who cares if he loves you? You're mine and we both know it. He can't have you because you've belonged to me since the first time I let you take me."

Gaara ground his teeth together. "You have no claim over me after you ditched me for a lead on your brother. I don't play second fiddle to anyone."

"Well he's dead now, and you're the only thing on my mind," Sasuke said pinching one of Gaara's nipples. Gaara hissed.

"But the only reason you're interested in me now is because you're done with Itachi. I'm still playing back up and I won't have it. I may have had feelings for you a year ago, but I most certainly don't now," Gaara ground out. Sasuke ground his hips against Gaara's.

"That's not the truth and we both know it. _This_," Sasuke ground his hips against Gaara's again. "is proof enough."

Gaara bit his lip, trying very hard not to succumb to the sensual being seducing him. "I hate you."

"I don't care if you do. I'm an Uchiha, and I get what I want. And I want you," Sasuke said, slipping his free hand down Gaara's stomach and to his crotch, massaging the bulge there. Gaara groaned and his head fell forward, his eyes becoming obscured by his hair. Sasuke smirked and squeezed his hand gently. Gaara moaned but then realized what he was doing. Before Sasuke knew what had happened, Gaara had gotten off of him and was now sitting on the floor.

"Come back to bed Gaara… you know you want to," Sasuke purred, sliding a hand across the bed and onto Gaara's shoulder. Gaara tried to shrug the hand off.

"Fuck off," Gaara said dejectedly, knowing that he had technically cheated on Naruto and was totally mortified by it. The blond was so dear to him, and he didn't want to screw up, especially with Sasuke.

"You can't escape from me this time. You know they'll come in here eventually and since this place is so well guarded, so well guarded that even I can't escape, you'll have to stay here. You'd better start coming up with a plan on how to get us out of this mess," Sasuke said casually. Gaara scowled darkly.

"Why don't you come up with something for once, I'm tired of covering for you," Gaara said. "It doesn't matter if they find me; I have the skills to get out of here unscathed. You on the other hand, always depend on luck or someone else to get you out of a jam."

Sasuke scowled at the ceiling. "Screw you."

"Hah. If I remember correctly, it was **I** who screwed**you** because you loved the feel of my cock rammed up your ass," Gaara sneered. Sasuke's scowl got deeper.

"You're a dominating man, you wanted to fuck me," Sasuke said. Gaara scoffed.

"Yeah… but if you had wanted it I would have let you fuck me," Gaara said. "But not any more. The only guy who's going to fuck me is my man."

Sasuke looked over at Gaara. "I'd be your man if you'd let me."

Gaara looked down, face near his chest. "You had your chance Sasuke, and you blew it."

Sasuke reached over and ran a hand through Gaara's hair, effectively breaking the moment. Startled out of his reverie, Gaara scooted out of the way of the hand. Sasuke sighed. Gaara twitched and wondered how he got into these situations. Both boys froze as they heard voices in the hallway. Gaara dashed over to the locked door and put his ear against it.

"_Do you think the boss' having fun with those two boys? I mean, that first one is rather stubborn. I wonder if that new one was even able to touch him_," someone said. Gaara frowned.

"_If he did I'd be amazed. That little Uchiha fucker bit me when I tried to touch him_," the other voice said. The first voice chuckled.

"Hey… Gaara… what're they saying?" Sasuke asked. Gaara glared at him and made a shushing motion. Sasuke rolled his eyes and went back to looking at the ceiling.

"_We should listen in and see if the Uchiha's struggling or enjoying himself_," the second man said. Gaara swore quietly.

"_We totally should. But no looking in, you know how the boss is,_" the first man said. Gaara rushed over to the bed.

"You better be able to sound like a porn star without much prompting," Gaara said. Sasuke frowned at him.

"What?" he said eloquently. Gaara sneered at him and straddled the Uchiha's hips.

"They're going to be listening," Gaara explained. He grabbed Sasuke's crotch, causing the Uchiha to throw his head back and moan. "This better be the performance of your life."

Sasuke could only groan. Gaara's hand didn't move from its spot but Sasuke didn't need the Sandman to move his hand. Moving his hips to a rhythm only he knew, Sasuke rubbed and grinded and thrust against the hand on his crotch. Gaara bit his lip. Just watching Sasuke was turning him on, and he didn't want to like it. Sasuke was becoming louder, and when Gaara was sure the men outside were listening he started to grunt. Sasuke's eyes flew open as he looked at Gaara. Reaching up a hand, Sasuke fondled Gaara through his pants. Gaara groaned at the feeling. He hadn't gotten laid in so long…

Seeing as he was entirely distracted by Sasuke, Gaara almost didn't hear the two walk away. But the moment he knew they were gone he jumped off of Sasuke, earning him the most piteous mewl he had ever heard. He looked at the Uchiha and instantly regretted it. Sasuke had shoved his own hand down his pants, determined to get off. Apparently the Uchiha was too far gone to just ignore his erection. Gaara could only stand and watch as Sasuke's mouth hung open, his legs spread and his back arched. As the Uchiha orgasmed Gaara's named slipped through his lips and Gaara felt his knees buckle at the sight. Crashing down to the ground, Gaara just watched as Sasuke's breathing started to slow as he came down from his high.

Gaara was trembling. He knew that Sasuke was walking sex, but still… seeing and knowing were two entirely different things. Sasuke turned sultry eyes towards him and Gaara couldn't help but stand and move back to the bed, lying beside the last Uchiha. Gaara turned to Sasuke, about to say something, but Sasuke cut him off with a kiss. Gaara backed away and gave the Uchiha a stern look.

"You have a hit taken out on your head," Gaara said unceremoniously. Sasuke scowled.

"Way to kill the mood," the Uchiha mumbled. Gaara rolled his eyes.

"I'm not kidding Sasuke, you're living on borrowed time," Gaara said. Sasuke's scowl deepened.

"Who the hell would take out a hit on me?" the Uchiha asked tersely.

"Your brother," Gaara explained. Sasuke could only gape. "Apparently, in the event of his death, someone is supposed to take you out. And since you killed him…"

"Someone will be coming after me…" Sasuke finished. Gaara nodded.

"I'd stop leaving such an obvious trail," Gaara suggested. Sasuke frowned at him.

"How did you know my trail was obvious?" Sasuke asked. Gaara looked up at the ceiling.

"My boyfriend's tracking you down," Gaara said simply. Sasuke's brown furrowed.

"Your boyfriend is the man who's supposed to take me out?" Sasuke asked, rather confused. Gaara laughed.

"Hell no," Gaara said, still smiling at the stupidity of Sasuke's statement. "My boyfriend is a man of the law: FBI."

"… Seriously?" Sasuke asked incredulously. Gaara nodded.

"He's been tracking you down for _years_. And, ironically, he's on my case as well. Its how we met actually… he and his little police squad broke into my apartment and I haven't been able to get rid of him since," Gaara said, smiling slightly. Sasuke thought about this for a while.

"What's your boyfriend's name?" Sasuke asked cautiously. Gaara looked at the Uchiha, both their faces were blank.

"Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto," Gaara told the Uchiha. Sasuke scowled.

"You've got to be kidding me. You're choosing that dobe over me?!" the Uchiha asked incredulously. Gaara twitched.

"Don't call him a dobe. He's smarter than you give him credit. And yes, I am choosing him over you, because unlike you, he actually cares about me and my feelings. He's precious to me," Gaara said, slightly put out. Sasuke sneered at him.

"He's dead last. I'm surprised he even got in the FBI," Sasuke spat. Gaara grabbed him around the throat, cutting off the Uchiha's air supply.

"Fuck you Sasuke. You don't know a damn thing about him; if you had you wouldn't have left all those years ago. If you had known _me_ you wouldn't have left _me_. You don't know shit Sasuke," Gaara grit out through clenched teeth. The Uchiha was scratching at his hand, clawing at his arm to get him to let go. With a final harsh squeeze to the Uchiha's throat the Sandman let go.

"That reminds me of what I was going to tell you," Gaara said impassively. Sasuke was coughing and having a hard time breathing. "If you fuck with me again, or if I ever see you after this little incident, I'm telling Naruto. And trust you me, I will help him find you since I know you won't leave me alone anymore."

Sasuke's eyes went wide at the threat. Gaara couldn't have said that. But his panic was cut short as the sound of footsteps approached the door. Both were frozen in their spots on the bed, but the people just passed by.

"Shit… we need a plan," Sasuke said, looking over at the Sandman. Green eyes were firmly focused on the ceiling and his eyebrow-less forehead was scrunched in thought.

"Strip," Gaara commanded. Sasuke's eyes went wide.

"What?" he said intelligently. The Sandman glared at him.

"I said, strip!" the Sandman hissed. Sasuke instantly was doing what he was told. As soon as he was nude, the Sandman took his clothes and threw them haphazardly around. His shirt landed in the pool of blood below the gun dealer. Sasuke was about to protest when the Sandman started to take off his own clothes. Sasuke watched as pale skin was revealed down to the boxers. The clothes were once again tossed haphazardly. The Sandman stood, grabbed the gun, and walked over to the other side of the room. Opening a window and looking around he wiped the gun clean of prints and dropped it into the bushes below.

"Remind me to pick that up later," the Sandman said coolly. Sasuke only nodded. Walking back to the bed, the Sandman picked the gun dealer's pockets and pulled out a tube of lube. He tossed it to Sasuke, who barely caught it.

"Prepare yourself," he commanded. Sasuke only blinked.

"What?" he asked once again. Green eyes narrowed at him. Sasuke hurriedly took the cap off the tube and poured some lube on his hand, grumbling about how cold the lube was and about vague bastards.

"We need an excuse for not noticing his murder," the Sandman explained. Sasuke still didn't get the connection between that and what he was doing. "We will say that we had passed out from the amazing sex."

Sasuke only blinked at the Sandman. "How's that going to work?"

Green eyes once again flickered over to the Uchiha and narrowed. Sasuke flinched a little under the scrutiny.

"I know what I'm doing," was all the Sandman said. He discarded his boxers and crawled onto the bed and between Sasuke's spread legs. Sasuke bit his lip at the sight of his former lover. The Sandman was most certainly everything he used to be, and more. But then again, he could be just the same and Sasuke wouldn't notice since it had been so long. The Sandman grabbed the lube and coated himself. Sasuke couldn't keep his eyes off the other boy. Pulling Sasuke's hand out, the Sandman positioned himself. Sasuke trembled in anticipation. With one swift thrust, the other boy was fully sheathed. Sasuke screamed. It hurt, and yet it felt sooo good. The Sandman didn't bother giving him any time to adjust before he started to harshly pound into the Uchiha's willing body. It was over as soon as it had begun, and as Sasuke felt his world fade away into post-orgasmic bliss, he heard Gaara whisper Naruto's name.

* * *

The pair was rudely woken early in the morning by people screaming and yelling. Gaara felt someone smack his back and shake him violently, pulling him out of his slumber. Turning bleary eyes to whoever had woken him, Gaara saw an extremely flustered and angry man glaring down at him. Frowning and pulling the body next to him closer, Gaara just confusedly blinked at the man hovering above him.

"Did you do this?" the man screamed, pulling at Gaara's hair and making him face the body of the gun dealer. Gaara made a show of gasping, covering his mouth in horror and looking sick. He broke free from the man's hold and scampered across the bed to huddle at the other end and rock back and forth. Sasuke, who was awoken because of all the commotion, just looked around himself for a moment before looking at the body (which had been rotated slightly by Gaara at some point in the night). As Gaara had done, he scampered across the bed and hid head against the other boy's chest, crying and holding on for dear life. Every once in a while the two would let out a pair of pathetic whimpers and Sasuke went for a sudden cry of fear, burying himself closer to Gaara.

"Tsch, do you really think those two could have done anything? Look at them, their pathetic," one of the men said. The man who had woken the pair only narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

"But why didn't they hear anything?" he asked. The other men looked at each other.

"Must've used a silencer," one said.

"But you would still hear that," the man persisted. One of the men went over to the pair and pulled Sasuke away from Gaara, both instantly protested. The man roughly shoved Sasuke's legs apart and stuck a finger in his ass. Sasuke cried out in a mixture of indignation, and shock.

"I'd say they were passed out from some rough, passionate sex," he said, letting go of Sasuke, who instantly attached himself to Gaara and shuddered. Gaara glared at them all.

"Out cold, eh?" the man said. He snorted. "I guess that would explain it. Pay them to keep them quiet, dress them and get them out of here."

Twenty minutes later the two were out on the street. Gaara had discretely picked up the gun as they left and had shoved it down Sasuke's pants. The Uchiha had glared, but didn't protest as the two were shoved into a cab and dropped off in the middle of the city. Looking at each other, Gaara was the first to move. Turning on his heel, he made to leave, but Sasuke grabbed his arm.

"Gaara…" he started. Gaara silenced him with one look.

"This never happened. And if I ever see you again I **will** tell Naruto. I'd disappear if I were you Sasuke; you've got an FBI agent on your tail and a hit man. If you don't try anything ever again I can guarantee your survival, but if you ever come near me, or try to get me away from Naruto, I will make sure you die," Gaara said before slipping out of Sasuke's grasp and walking away. Sasuke felt his eyes get moist but just hardened himself. He would get Gaara back, no matter the cost.

Gaara meanwhile, had gotten to his hotel room and had collapsed on the bed, crying himself to sleep, wracked with guilt.


	11. Chapter 11

Though a long time in coming, I give you chapter 11. There are ongoing revisions to earlier chapters (since there are some inconsistancies). I promise this story will get finished, as soon as its typed.

**Warnings: **SMUT! (the good NaruGaa kind too!) Angst! and Drama!

**Vocab:** Interpol- The **International Criminal Police Organization**, better known by its telegraphic address **Interpol,** is an organization facilitating international police cooperation. (wikipedia)

* * *

The ringing of his cell phone woke Gaara up in the middle of the night. Blearily blinking his eyes, he blindly reached out a hand in the supposed direction of his bedside table. After fumbling around for a short while he finally found the ringing, vibrating device. Tugging the charger out, he quickly brought his phone to his ear.

"Hello?" he asked, his voice cracking from crying and misuse. Wincing, he cleared his throat in hopes that it would make him sound less pathetic.

"Gaara?" Naruto's voice asked him over the line. Gaara winced; he had hoped that he would have had more time between "cheating" and talking to his boyfriend so that he could calm down.

"Hey Naruto," Gaara replied. Raising his head he looked around for the digital clock in his room to see what time it was. Rubbing his eyes with his free hand he saw that the time was 2:13am.

"Did I wake you?" Naruto asked. Gaara yawned and shook his head before he remembered that he was on the phone and Naruto would be unable to see him.

"Yeah," Gaara replied, not bothering to hide the truth.

"Oh… I'm sorry. I just wanted you to know that I'd be in India," Naruto replied. Gaara sat straight up in his bed.

"Wha… why?" he asked, instantly alert.

"Apparently the Sandman struck somewhere over there," Naruto replied and Gaara could just see the blond twirling a piece of his hair just like a school girl.

"What does that have to do with you? I mean, I know you're working the case in America, but when he strikes internationally, aren't you people usually not involved? Something about the UN or Interpol or something?" Gaara asked. Naruto laughed on the other side of the line, apparently finding Gaara's mild panic amusing.

"Normally you're right, but apparently Interpol wants to _work with us_ for once, and they figure that we might have a lead, so they're employing our help. So, the higher-ups decided to send me. I get a free trip around the world and title of 'lead investigator' just because Interpol's feeling friendly," Naruto explained. Gaara rubbed his forehead, this whole situation and trip to India was getting worse by the hour.

"Naruto… you do realize that they probably made you 'lead investigator' because they think I'm their best bet as to who the Sandman is," Gaara idly remarked. Naruto was silent for a while and Gaara sighed.

"I hope you're not right… I would hate to think that you were the Sandman, it wouldn't be fun dating jail bait," Naruto replied, trying to make light of the situation. Gaara just rolled his eyes.

"What makes you think that **I** would be jail bait? I think I'm an intimidating guy, and if I was the Sandman I'd definitely be tough enough to take control of the other inmates," Gaara replied cheekily. There was a silence on the other end of the line. "Naruto?"

"Don't say that again," Naruto said and Gaara's forehead creased.

"Say what?" Gaara asked, thoroughly confused.

"That you're the Sandman," Naruto replied.

"I didn't say I was. I just said 'if' I was the Sandman," Gaara said.

"I know… but I don't like hearing that… it scares me," Naruto replied and Gaara's breath hitched. His chest started to hurt and he clutched at his heart hopelessly. "I know I said I'd always be here for you, and I meant that. But if you were the Sandman…"

Gaara's hand clutched at the fabric covering his chest, knowing what Naruto would say if he finished that sentence. "You'd still arrest me if I were."

"… Yes," Naruto finally replied after a long painful silence. Gaara closed his eyes and his lip trembled. "I love you. I know its super early to say that in a relationship, but I already know that I wouldn't be able to live without you in my life. But… I am an FBI agent, and if you were the Sandman, you'd be the most wanted man in the world, and it would be my job to turn you in. I wouldn't be able to not do it."

Gaara nodded as a single tear leaked from his eye. "I would understand. Your job is important."

"Yes… but let's not talk of that any more. I know you're not the Sandman, and you aren't the Sandman, so we don't have to worry about it," Naruto replied cheerily.

"You're right…" Gaara mumbled, trying to sound upbeat about it.

"The reason I'm calling is to see where you are and see if we could get together if you're near where I am," Naruto said and Gaara could hear the goofy smile over the phone. Gaara smiled a bitter smile.

"That would be great. I'd love to see you if you're close by," he replied.

Two days later, Gaara was sitting at a small diner waiting for his boyfriend to show up for their lunch date. He had spent the last two days re-dying his hair red, trying to get the exact shade that his hair was naturally was quite hard to do, and trying to think of what he would say to Naruto. Gaara couldn't not say anything about what had happened with Sasuke. Naruto deserved to know… even if it crushed him and Gaara in the process. Gaara was trying so hard in this relationship, he had opened himself up and put himself out there… and then _this_ had happened. Naruto would be crushed, and Gaara would probably never see him again. This sent him into a depressed state of self-loathing, so he didn't notice as Naruto joined him at the table.

"You alright?" the blond asked him. Gaara's head snapped up and he looked at his beloved boyfriend. The red head tried to force a smile, but it didn't quite work if the look on Naruto's face was anything to go by.

"I'm fine," Gaara tried to reassure the blond, but Naruto clearly wasn't buying it.

"That face you pulled just now implied otherwise," Naruto stated. Reaching over the blond grasped one of the red head's hands in his own. "You can tell me anything you know."

Gaara just looked at his blond boyfriend and contemplated not telling him about the Sasuke incident. But at the thought of lying and living with the guilt, he changed his mind. Nodding, Gaara opened his mouth.

"Let's go to my place… I'll tell you there…" he said cautiously. Naruto's brow furrowed, but he agreed. The two walked in silence down the busy city streets until they reached Gaara's room. Once there, Naruto sat down on the queen sized bed and watched as Gaara opened up the mini-fridge and grabbed a drink.

"Gaara… what's wrong? It's not like you to be drinking, let alone drinking at noon," Naruto said, worry creeping into his voice. Gaara just looked at him for a while, his face blank, before downing the mini-bottle of alcohol. "Gaara? …You're starting to scare me…"

Gaara just continued to look at Naruto for a moment before looking down at the floor. "You're not going to like what I have to say."

Naruto just looked at his boyfriend for a moment, taking in his appearance. It looked like he hadn't been able to sleep, his eyes had larger than normal black rings around them and he just looked miserable. From the slouched stance to the blatant refusal to meet his eyes, Naruto was sure that his boyfriend was really depressed over whatever he had to tell him. Taking moment to prepare himself mentally, Naruto took a deep breath and walked over to his boyfriend, who was still staring at the carpet like it was the most interesting thing he had ever seen.

"Whatever it is, you can tell me," Naruto said reassuringly while guiding his boyfriend to the bed and sitting him down. "Whatever it is, it can't be worth the torment you're putting yourself through."

"Oh but it is," Gaara replied sullenly. "Its bad Naruto and I wouldn't blame you if you left me because of this."

Naruto set his jaw and reached out to clasp Gaara's jaw, forcing him to face him. "Look at me."

Gaara's eyes refused to meet Naruto's. Naruto shook Gaara's jaw, which in turn rattled his head. "I said, look at me."

Gaara finally looked at his boyfriend and what he saw made him want to cry, but he simply couldn't. Naruto was looking at him with such compassion that he thought his heart would break from the strain of having to tell him this.

"Whatever you say, and whatever has happened will not drive us apart. I told you already, I'm not leaving you, no matter what," Naruto said firmly, accenting his point by squeezing Gaara's jaw.

"I wish I could believe you," Gaara murmured and Naruto squeezed his jaw again. Gaara sighed and moved to get up, but Naruto reached out and held him down with both hands.

"Stay right here," Naruto commanded. Gaara frowned slightly.

"I'd rather not," he said. Naruto glared at him.

"Tough luck, I want you to stay here," Naruto told him. Gaara huffed indignantly. Naruto rolled his eyes. "Now spill, what's got you in such a tiff?"

Taking a deep breath, Gaara prepared himself. "I ran into my ex."

There was a long pause before Naruto spoke. "That's it?"

"No… that's just the beginning," Gaara said regretfully. Naruto quirked his head to the side, waiting for Gaara to continue his piece. "It wasn't a pleasant meeting. Things happened that I wish hadn't."

"Did he hurt you?" Naruto asked, suddenly worried about the physical wellness of his boyfriend.

"No… but the way things happened…" Gaara said, but trailed off. Naruto looked at him expectantly and Gaara closed his eyes before continuing. "I… had sex with him…"

The silence was deafening as Naruto drew away from his boyfriend, his heart constricting painfully in his chest. Gaara was looking at him now, tears filling his eyes and misery plainly written on his features, but Naruto couldn't bring himself to care, he was too hurt.

"I didn't want to; I never wanted to see him again!" Gaara pleaded as Naruto kept backing away from him. "I didn't want to touch him, but he showed up and suddenly there we were and I didn't even want to be there. But there was no other choice… I couldn't do anything to stop it. You have to believe me; I didn't want to do it!"

Naruto stopped moving. He looked at Gaara through red eyes with tears running silently down his face. Reaching up he wiped away the tears from his face.

"Gaara… did you say you couldn't stop it and that you didn't want it?" Naruto asked timidly, almost afraid of what the answer would be. Gaara hesitated, not really liking the phrasing of the question because it was misleading.

"…Yes…" Gaara replied. Naruto's face immediately changed and he lunged at his boyfriend, pulling him into a suffocating hug. Gaara pushed at him ineffectually to get him to loosen his grip.

"Oh god Gaara… I thought for a moment there that you had cheated on me and would leave me! But the truth is much worse!" Naruto exclaimed loosening his grip a little bit so that Gaara could breathe. "Nonconsensual sex is considered rape Gaara."

Gaara was speechless, he couldn't deny it and confirm Naruto's earlier claim, but neither could he say that it was rape. Stuck in this lose-lose situation, Gaara just staid silent.

"Gaara… I'm so sorry. I should have been here, I should have protected you," Naruto said pulling back and looking at his emotionless boyfriend's face.

"There was nothing you would have been able to do Naruto," Gaara said neutrally. Naruto shook his head.

"But I should have been here with you, _for_ you," Naruto said confidently. Gaara frowned and squirmed his way out of Naruto's arms, trying to change the direction of this conversation.

"How can you even look at me? Another man had his hands on me," Gaara said, brow furrowing.

"But you didn't want it, it wasn't your fault," Naruto replied reaching out for the red head, but Gaara backed away.

"But I'm dirty now, I've been sullied," Gaara replied, inwardly cringing at the word**fault**.

"You're not dirty, you're just as perfect as you ever were and don't ever say anything different," Naruto said firmly. Gaara's brow furrowed deeper.

"But…" Gaara started to argue, but Naruto stood up and gathered him into his arms. Gaara was stunned.

"I still love you and I still want you," Naruto said firmly. Gaara was speechless for a moment as his blond FBI agent boyfriend held him tightly.

"If you still want me, then take me," Gaara finally said. Naruto pulled back slightly to look the red head in the eyes. "Make me forget that there was ever anyone else but you."

"Gaara…" Naruto started but couldn't finish.

"Please Naruto," Gaara pleaded. The blond reached up to stroke Gaara's cheek before lightly brushing their lips together. Instantly Gaara had his arms around Naruto's neck and was trying to deepen the kiss. Naruto grasped onto his wait firmly and pulled back, holding Gaara at arms length.

"Gaara… are you sure about this?" Naruto asked cautiously. Gaara just looked at the blond. Naruto sighed. "Fine, I'll never question you again."

"Good," Gaara said and leaned in to kiss Naruto again. The blond accepted the kiss and wrapped his arms back around Gaara.

Lips slid against lips, and Naruto's hands slid down to Gaara's butt. Gaara's tongue touched Naruto's lips and the blond instantly opened his mouth to accept the invasion. Gaara's tongue ran along Naruto's teeth before tangling with his tongue. The smooth, powerful muscles slid deliciously against each other and Gaara groaned. Naruto started to pull Gaara back towards the bed. When the blond's knees hit the bed he fell back, pulling Gaara down with him.

Gaara braced himself above Naruto on his arms. Naruto looked up at him adoringly and pulled the red head back down. As they kissed once more, Naruto started to scoot up the bed and Gaara followed. After a moment Gaara broke away and got off of the blond. Naruto frowned but Gaara soon made his intentions clear. The red head moved to the head of the bed and lay on his back, holding his arms out invitingly towards the blond. Naruto crawled up the bed and in between Gaara's spread legs. Naruto let his hands wander up Gaara's chest before he latched onto Gaara's neck. Gaara tipped his head back to give Naruto full access to his neck. Naruto sucked on a spot just below Gaara's ear before pulling back and blowing air on it, causing Gaara to shiver. Nipping on the forming hickey, Naruto lapped at the spot on Gaara's neck before once again sucking on the area. Gaara's hands came up to grasp at Naruto's shoulders and the blond dragged his hands down Gaara's chest and pushed under the red head's shirt.

Soon the shirt was up and over Gaara's head and tossed carelessly onto the floor. Naruto's hands smoothed over Gaara's pale skin and the red head arched into the touch. Naruto marveled at the pallor and texture of Gaara's skin. It was so soft and so pale that it almost seemed as if the red head had never gone outside a single day in his life. The blond leaned down slowly before latching onto Gaara's collarbone. Gaara dug his nails into Naruto's shoulders as he just held on for the ride. Naruto let one of his hands wander to Gaara's hip as the other caressed the red head's sides before coming up to pinch a dusky nipple. Gaara's head fell back and his mouth fell open. Naruto let his mouth trail from Gaara's collarbone down to his other nipple and licked the nub, which had hardened. Gaara gasped as Naruto took the nipple into his mouth and nipped at it before sucking on the tender flesh. Naruto rolled Gaara's other nipple between his fingers for a moment before he let his fingertips run down Gaara's chest. Once reaching Gaara's waist he put his hand on the bed and propped himself up as he let his mouth trail down Gaara's chest to his navel. He pushed his tongue into the dip and licked around it before pushing his tongue in again.

Gaara tugged at Naruto's shirt, bunching it at the blond's shoulders before Naruto slipped out of the material. As his chest was revealed, he scooted back up and captured Gaara's mouth in a searing kiss. Gaara's hands roved Naruto's back and left crescent shaped fingernail marks on the blond's shoulders. Naruto let one of his hands trail to the crotch of Gaara's pants. Gaara moaned and bucked into the touch. Naruto caressed Gaara's growing bulge before fumbling with the button to Gaara's pants. Once unbuttoned, Naruto pulled down Gaara's zipper.

"Lift your hips," Naruto ordered. Gaara did as he was told and Naruto tugged the red head's pants off his hips and down his legs. The blond admired the shapely legs that were revealed to him before lower his mouth to Gaara's stomach again. He dipped his tongue into Gaara's navel again, mimicking what he would be doing to Gaara later with his cock. Gaara moaned again and scratched at Naruto's shoulders. The blond pulled back again to pull off Gaara's boxers and his own pants and underwear before climbing back between Gaara's legs. Both boys groaned at the contact of skin on skin. Naruto ground his hips against Gaara's, feeling their erections rub against one another.

"Do you have anything?" Naruto asked when he got his breath back. He looked at Gaara's glazed eyes and knew he wasn't paying attention enough to tell him anything coherent. He quickly glanced around and saw the bedside table. Dashing away from the tempting red head underneath him, Naruto scampered to the table and pulled the drawer open. There was nothing in the drawer other than a bible. Scowling, Naruto dashed into the bathroom and found a bottle of lotion. Running back to bed, he noticed that Gaara was watching his every move as he returned with the lotion. Blushing, as if realizing for the first time what they were doing, Naruto slowly climbed back between the red head's legs. Caressing Gaara's legs soothingly with one hand, Naruto popped the cap to the lotion with his other hand. He opened his mouth to ask Gaara if he was really sure about this, but one look from the red head had him shutting his mouth and coating three of his fingers with the lotion.

Reaching between Gaara's legs, Naruto massaged Gaara's rim and coated it with lotion before working his first finger in up to the first knuckle. One look at Gaara's face, and Naruto knew that he was a virgin, at least in the sense that a man had never taken him before. Naruto knew he should hang on to that revelation, but he was too busy pushing his finger the rest of the way into Gaara's body to care. Bending his head down Naruto started to kiss the inside of Gaara's thighs to help distract the red head from what he was doing with his fingers.

After a minute of sliding his finger in and out of Gaara, and making sure the muscles were stretched enough, he added a second finger. Instantly Gaara's muscles tightened and Naruto paused his movements. Licking his way up Gaara's thigh to his hip seemed to distract the red head enough for him to relax and let Naruto fully sheath his two fingers. After bending his fingers and scissoring for a while Naruto finally licked the tip of Gaara's erection and pushed a third and final finger into his body. Gaara's back instantly arched and his mouth fell open in an expression of ecstasy. A long, low moan reverberated from his throat and Naruto knew he was enjoying the whole experience. After capturing the tip of Gaara's erection in his mouth and earning himself a shiver and a groan, Naruto felt around inside Gaara's body for that one spot that would make him see stars. Naruto knew he had found it when Gaara suddenly bucked into his mouth and let out an earth shattering scream. Trying not to gag as Gaara's erection hit the back of his throat; Naruto quickly finished off his preparations and pulled his mouth off of Gaara's erection. Looking down at the beautiful creature splayed too temptingly beneath him, Naruto groaned and lubed himself up. Lifting Gaara's legs Naruto let Gaara wrap them loosely around his waist as he positioned himself. Giving Gaara one last questioning look, he pushed the head of his erection into his boyfriend.

Gaara's back arched and he had to bite his lip to keep himself from screaming again as Naruto entered him. Grabbing onto the sheets, Gaara willed himself to relax as Naruto continued to push himself into the red head. After Naruto was fully seated he finally paused in his relentless push forward. Gaara took a few moments to pant and get accustomed to the feeling of being filled. He had never thought that it could feel this way, this good and pleasurable. Gaara was loving it, and that was when Naruto had decided to move.

The slow grind of Naruto pulling out was enough to drive Gaara wild and he grabbed at Naruto's back, willing him to move faster, harder, anything. Naruto slowly pushed his way back in before pulling back again. Gaara squirmed and clawed under Naruto, willing him silently to move.

"What do you want?" Naruto asked breathlessly. Gaara growled and tugged at Naruto's torso. "What do you want me to do?"

"Move god damnit!" Gaara yelled. Naruto grinned devilishly.

"Your wish is my command," he said before slamming back into Gaara. Gaara's head fell backward as he arched his back and screamed in ecstasy. Soon Naruto was setting a fast and brutal pace, changing the angle of his hips each time, trying to hit that elusive spot that would make Gaara scream again. A second later he found it. A scream ripped its way out of Gaara's throat and the red head bucked beneath him. Grinning ferally, Naruto mercilessly aimed for that spot within Gaara every time.

Gaara's world was centered on Naruto. All he could do was hold on and enjoy the ride. As Naruto's thrusts became wilder and Gaara's bucks became more frantic, a hand reached out and grabbed Gaara's erection and began furiously tugging it in time to Naruto's thrusts. Gaara's back bowed and it was only a short period of time before his world went white and he reached orgasm. He could feel Naruto buck wildly and soon felt him follow him into the world of sweet oblivion.

As they lay on their backs exhausted and sated, Gaara looked over to the blond at his side. Gaara could see himself lying with this man every night, waking up to him every day, and spending the rest of his life with him. It was certainly a startling revelation after everything that he had said about the blond, but it was true. Gaara knew that he wouldn't be able to keep up his double life anymore, and he no longer cared. If it meant keeping Naruto happy and at his side, then Gaara would quit being the Sandman in a heartbeat, given the chance.

Naruto turned to him after a moment of silence and grinned that happy grin of his. "I love you."

Gaara staid silent for a moment before replying. "I… I…"

Naruto smiled warmly at him. "You don't have to say anything, you know?"

Gaara shook his head. "No. I need to say this, before anything else happens. I… I really do… love… you."

Naruto grinned brightly at him. "I love you too Gaara and I want to spend the rest of my life with you."


	12. The beginning of the end

**If:** Welcome to the beginning of the end! Only a theoretical 2 chapters left! Party! I told you people I'd finish this eventually. Anywho, thanks to all the people sticking with this little story. This chapter might be a bit short, but it has everything I wanted to put in it in it, and I like the ending, so... yeah.

**Warnings: **VIOLENCE! Blood, gore

**Review replies:** Shinimegami7- Yes, they did. The consumation of their relationship and all that jazz. It will be hard for Gaara to quit, you're right. Just because HE wants to quit, doesn't mean the world will let him. Thank you for the review!

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Paris was beautiful. No matter the season, the capital of romance was a sight to behold. The trees were starting to change colors, the people were walking around in pairs and chatting lightly, and the Eiffel tower stood at the center of it all. It was the place of lovers, and Naruto and Gaara were no exceptions. After the near disastrous encounter in India, the two had gotten even closer than either thought possible. They had even tied the knot several days ago. Naruto was no officially part of Gaara's family, though he didn't like the fact that Kankuro called him his 'sister in-law.' Everything was going swimmingly. There were no more problems, no Sasuke, and even the Sandman had started to fade away. Naruto loved it, but Gaara just knew that things were too perfect. Sooner or later something would happen and ruin everything, he just knew it.

Gaara had already resigned himself to his fate. He knew he couldn't tell Naruto about being the Sandman, but he so desperately wanted to. Unfortunately he just couldn't go to jail, even if the blond would stay by his side. He wouldn't be able to live with himself, so he kept his silence and it was slowly eating away at him. The only way that Naruto would find out would be if Sasuke showed up and opened his big fat mouth.

Unfortunately, it just so happened that fate had one last trick up her sleeve for the newly wed lovers. In a funny way life is a circle and everything comes around at least twice. And so it happened that one fine day when Gaara awoke in the morning his lover was not beside him. Stretching his arms above his head and arching his back, the red head tried to get the various kinks out of his system. As he sat up and opened the curtains to their luscious suite windows he admired the day. It was only nine in the morning, but it was already shaping up to be a beautiful day in Paris.

Figuring that Naruto had gone down to the quaint little shop down the street for breakfast, Gaara made his way towards the bathroom to shower. He warmed up the water to his preferred temperature and climbed into the four jets, glass enclosed shower. Spending as much time as he wanted on soaping up and rinsing himself down, Gaara got out a leisurely half an hour later. He grabbed a white fluffy towel and toweled himself off before wrapping the towel around his waist. As he walked out of the bathroom he noticed something off about the hotel room. Walking to the door Gaara saw that it was shut, but something kept him from thinking that the room was still empty.

"Naruto?" the red head asked tentatively. Looking around something caught Gaara's eye on the floor: blood. "Naruto?"

Cautiously Gaara followed the trail of specks and dots of blood into the bedroom. As his eyes followed the trail of blood his eyes came to rest on the bed. Lying there, covered in blood and soaking the formerly pristinely white sheets was the one person Gaara had hoped to never see again. 

"What the hell are you doing here?" Gaara asked tersely. Black eyes looked up from the bed impassively at him.

"Could you at least help me stop the bleeding before you ask me all these questions?" Sasuke asked weakly. Gaara frowned but walked to the phone.

"Yes, this is room 213, could you send up a first aid kit and some extra towels? … Thank you," Gaara spoke calmly. After hanging up the phone, Gaara wandered over to his wardrobe and pulled out some clothes. Pulling on his boxers and pants, Gaara paused when he heard a knock on his door. Moving through the bedroom and to the door, Gaara opened the door and welcomed in the maid. After taking the towels and first aid kit and thanking the maid with a tip, Gaara made his way back into the bedroom and focused his attention on the now sitting Uchiha. 

Sasuke was slowly trying to pry his shirt up over his head, but it was matted to his skin thanks to the blood soaking it. Gaara sighed and helped the Uchiha pry the shirt up over his head. Sasuke sucked in a pained breath as Gaara poked the wound on his shoulder. Sighing, Gaara grabbed one of the extra towels and went to the bathroom and soaked it in water. Walking back into the bedroom Gaara watched as Sasuke poked at his shoulder. Gaara pushed his hand away and started to wipe and dab at the blood covered shoulder. After cleaning the wound and stopping the bleeding, Gaara pulled out the first aid kit.

"How do you get yourself into these messes anyway?" Gaara murmured to the Uchiha as he carefully put a cotton pad on the wound and winding gauze around the wounded shoulder.

"I guess I just have a knack for getting into trouble," Sasuke replied cheekily. Gaara rolled his eyes and tapped the bandage so it wouldn't come off or unravel.

"Get up and help me change these bloody sheets," Gaara commanded, pulling the Uchiha up off the bed. Together they pulled the bloodstained sheets off the bed and put them in the bathtub. Gaara poured soap onto the sheets, adding some bleach that he always carried with him just in case he had to go on a 'job.' As the tub filled with hot water Gaara wandered out of the bathroom to find Sasuke sitting on the loveseat and looking out the window pensively. After going back into the bathroom to turn off the tap, Gaara moved so that he was sitting on the floor in front of Sasuke.

"First off, how did you find me? I thought I told you to leave me alone or I'd tell Naruto about you," Gaara said. Sasuke looked at him briefly before turning to look back out of the window.

"You're not hard to find Gaara. The Sandman is hard to find, but Sabakuno Gaara is easy to find," Sasuke said disinterestedly. "Besides, telling Naruto about all of this could work in my favor and not yours."

Gaara bit his lip. "I don't think so Sasuke."

"I do, it's not much of a threat to tell Naruto. If anything was going to come from it he would only find out that we were involved and what do you think he'd do then?" Sasuke asked mockingly.

"Actually, he'd probably kill you. See, after that incident a month ago, Naruto came to India and we talked, he's under the impression that you raped me," Gaara said. Sasuke's head snapped over to Gaara, his eyes glaring.

"You manipulated the events leading up to us having sex," Sasuke spat out. Gaara just looked at the Uchiha.

"I didn't manipulate anything, I just tactfully left out some incriminating details," Gaara replied nonchalantly. Sasuke sneered at the red head.

"Well the truth will come out sooner or later," Sasuke spat at Gaara. Gaara just lifted an eyebrow.

"I don't think so Sasuke. You won't be around to tell him, and I obviously won't be telling him about my dirty little secret," Gaara replied. 

"And what makes you think I won't be around?" Sasuke sneered.

"That hit on your head for one," Gaara replied snappishly. 

"And how do you think I got this gaping wound, huh?" Sasuke snapped.

"Well if you weren't such an obvious bastard, tracking me down and all that, you wouldn't be in this situation, now would you?" Gaara practically growled.

"I can't help that I'm in love with you!" Sasuke yelled. 

Silence fell between the two occupants of the room. Gaara just stared at Sasuke as the raven haired Uchiha looked out of the window, a pretty blush adorning his cheeks. 

"Hey Gaara! I brought… breakfast…" Naruto trailed off from his position inside the doorway. He stepped forward and the door slammed shut behind him. Gaara looked desperately between his husband and his ex. Sasuke, meanwhile was staring at Naruto, his mouth hanging slightly open.

"Sasuke…" Naruto spoke, the bags in his arms falling to the floor. He slowly made his way from the door towards the loveseat, his hand reaching out towards the Uchiha. Gaara just sat and watched as the two old friends finally met after many years of separation.

"Hey Naruto…" Sasuke said, breaking the spell that had settled over the room's occupants. Naruto finally closed the gap between them and slapped Sasuke across the face.

"You bastard!" Naruto shouted, surprising the other two boys. Sasuke only blinked as Naruto pulled him off the loveseat and reached behind himself to pull out a handy pair of handcuffs. Gaara blushed as he watched his husband cuff Sasuke.

"Naruto… that might be a bad idea," Gaara tried to interject as Naruto started reading off Sasuke's rights. 

A loud crash from the door startled all three boys. Sasuke's eyes went wide, Gaara frowned at the door and Naruto went back to reading Sasuke's rights. Gaara moved to the door and peeped out the peephole. The red head promptly cursed.

"Naruto!" Gaara shouted. The blond and the Uchiha looked over to the angry Sabakuno.

"What?" Naruto asked.

"Get into the bedroom and lock the door," Gaara demanded, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his spare handcuff key. Naruto had backed away from Sasuke and could only watch as his husband un-cuffed the felon. 

"What are you doing Gaara?" Naruto asked, perturbed by his husband's actions. Gaara ignored the blond and glared at the Uchiha.

"Were you followed?" Gaara asked the Uchiha angrily. Sasuke shook his head emphatically.

"I swear to god I made sure that they didn't follow me," Sasuke answered quickly. Gaara frowned and there was another bang outside the door.

"Then they must have figured that you'd head here. God you're predictable," Gaara sneered, clearly frustrated by the situation that was quickly getting out of hand.

"Gaara!" Naruto shouted, trying to get his husbands attention. He was worried about what was going on, and he knew that his husband hadn't told him everything. Gaara looked piteously at his blond love.

"Please Naruto, just get into the bedroom, lock the door, and hide yourself," Gaara said pleadingly. Naruto looked at his husband as if seeing him for the first time and he was instantly sad, this wasn't the man he married.

"Alright…" Naruto replied and left the room, locking the door behind him. Gaara turned to the Uchiha.

"You're more trouble than your worth, I swear to god," Gaara grumbled as he walked over to one of the three coffee tables in the room and opened the drawer. Pulling out his handgun, Gaara pocketed an extra clip of bullets before loading and cocking his gun.

"What are we going to do?" Sasuke asked cautiously.

"You are going to be bait," Gaara said. "Sit on the couch. I guess I have no choice but to help you, though I'd rather just let them kill you for all the trouble you're causing me."

"Gee thanks, now I know you truly care," Sasuke said sarcastically, but did as he was told. Gaara twitched, but ignored the Uchiha's reply for the most part.

"I'll stake out the room from the bathroom. I'd suggest ducking for cover when the shit hits the fan," Gaara told Sasuke. 

The door burst open.

The assassins entered the room quickly and efficiently. They were some of the best in covert operations, but it seemed as if they were too desperate to eliminate their target to care about discretion at this point. With guns raised they made their way over to the Uchiha, who sat dead still on the loveseat. A shot rang out and one of the six men that had entered the room fell to the ground as the bullet pierced his neck. As his body twitched and gurgled in the throws of death, the other members of the team scattered quickly.

Sasuke jumped up quickly and hid behind the loveseat as another shot rang out, piercing the back of the loveseat and sending up a spray of cotton and splinters. Sasuke cursed colorfully from behind the loveseat. One of the squad had ducked behind the couch perpendicular to the loveseat and was slowly turning so that he could get a good shot at the Uchiha. Another shot rang out through the air and the man behind the couch cursed as the bullet exploded through his leg and blood sprayed over the cream carpeting and couch. A man who had stationed himself by the door ducked out into the hallway to make sure the shooter wasn't there. Signaling to the rest of the group that there was no one there, the leader of the group, positioned on one side of the door to the bathroom nodded to the man on the other side of the door. Simultaneously both men pointed their guns into the bathroom and let off several rounds.

The last man checked the door to the bedroom and found it locked. He signaled to the man by the door and soon they were both inspecting the door. The man behind the couch had applied some pressure to his wound and had torn pieces from his pants to wrap tightly around his damaged leg. Gritting his teeth he looked around the edge of the couch to find the Uchiha anxiously watching what was happening in the bathroom. Aiming his gun, the man fired a single round at the raven haired man behind the loveseat.

Silence filled the hotel suite which was broken when the two men at the bedroom door broke into the room. One of the men at the bathroom ducked into the room and the man behind the couch dragged himself behind the loveseat.

"Shit!" the man now behind the loveseat shouted. The men standing guard at the bathroom and bedroom turned to see what was happening. Three shots rang in the air; two from the loveseat and one from the bathroom. The man at the bathroom signaled to the man at the bedroom door to check out what was going on behind the loveseat. The second he turned back towards the bathroom a gun was pointed at his face, right between the eyes. Cold green eyes stared at him unblinking before the trigger was pulled.

Striding out of the bathroom Gaara glanced at the man in front of the loveseat. The man pulled his trigger as Gaara dropped to the floor. The man who had ventured into the bedroom came running out. Aiming at the man's ankle, Gaara fired another shot. Screaming as he fell, the man coming from the bedroom collapsed to the floor. The ground beside Gaara's face exploded in a magnificent splash of splinters and the red head rolled towards the wall and held a hand up to his face to protect the eyes.

"You son of a bitch!" the man in front of the loveseat shouted at Gaara before a bullet burst forth from his face, blood and bone splattering about as his body fell to its knees and collapse onto the floor, face-down. Walking dispassionately over to the crying man in pain before the bedroom door, Gaara pointed the barrel of his gun at the man's face.

"Why?" was the single word that escaped the man's lips before his skull exploded. Wiping at the blood covering his face and hands, Gaara looked up only to see the horrified face of his newly-wed husband.

"Naruto…"


	13. The Aftermath

**If: **Woo! I started this chapter thinking "maybe I'll figure out how I want to do this" and suddenly I couldn't stop! How wonderful! Anyway, this is the Aftermath. Only one more chapter and maybe an epilogue left! The tension is getting high!! I would like to that the readers and reviewers. I had worried that I had killed this story by having such a huge break between chapters, but you all are still reading and that's awesome! So THANK YOU!

**Warnings:** Sasuke POV, swearing, some gore, some drama and a heck of a lot of ANGST!

**Vocab: **Mon Dieu- My God in French

Usurper- Person who seizes another's place, authority, or possession wrongfully.

**Review Replies: **Shinimegami7- Yes, no one important died. And Naruto is going to have quite the time trying to cope with everything thrown at him. Poor Naruto, I torture him so. He he he... Sasuke does seem to be the wrench in the works, doesn't he? He just makes everything worse. Heh. Yes to the quickness of updating. I'm determined to finish this sucker! And woot pie! Much thanks for the review and virtual pie!

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"Naruto…"

Upon hearing that name slip through those perfect pale lips, the usurper known as Uchiha Sasuke cautiously peeked over the love seat to watch as the events unfolded. It seemed as though this was where the proverbial shit hit the fan for Gaara. The look on the blond's face was absolutely priceless. Sasuke almost felt like an ass to think that, but he really didn't care. According to the world of Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto was the usurper, not he. Before Naruto had come barging into Gaara's already hectic life, there had been Sasuke and Sasuke knew that Gaara still cared about it, his actions practically shouted "I still love you!" Plus, if Naruto's look was anything to go by, this marriage wasn't going to last. Gaara would be coming back to him and they could live as they should have.

The blond was backing away from the vision of beauty that was Gaara. Covered in blood and sporting a cut on his left arm from a bullet grazing him, the red head couldn't have been more attractive. This was how he was supposed to be, a cold hearted killer who held no remorse for his own actions, this was the way that Sasuke loved him.

Standing up from behind the love seat, Sasuke surveyed the room. All of the men that had attacked him earlier were dead. Gaara was nothing if precise. It was almost disconcerting the way the red head was able to kill almost all of the men with one well aimed shot. He glanced over to the bedroom door, it was open but both the blond and red head seemed to have gone inside. Sasuke sauntered towards the door, mindful of his own injury and peeked inside. Gaara was standing in front of a clearly disturbed Naruto, who had sat on the bed. Sasuke nearly scoffed at the sight. As incredulous as their relationship had been to him, this was by far the most incredulous thing by far. To think that Gaara had never told Naruto about him being the Sandman, though Naruto wouldn't be able to gather that Gaara was the Sandman from this… or would he? Sasuke wouldn't know. It had been so long since he had last interacted with the blond that he wasn't sure if Naruto really was as smart as he was pretty. Sasuke couldn't deny that the boy was pretty, he always had been, and that was why he could understand Gaara's choice of partners.

But really, had the red head truly thought that this odd pairing could work? He was a fugitive, a highly sought after serial murderer. Naruto was a man of the law, an FBI agent sworn to uphold the law and track down the Sandman. There was no way that Naruto could **not** turn Gaara in, just as there was no way that Sasuke could stop loving the red head. Gaara should have known this. He had to have known it. The Sandman was no fool, and Sasuke thought that Gaara himself was no fool as well.

"I should have told you," was what Gaara finally said and Sasuke rolled his eyes internally. The Uchiha slid down the wall and sat on the floor just inside the doorway. Naruto looked up at the red head in front of him.

"Told me what? That you are a murderer?" Naruto asked, his voice taking on a slightly crazed tone. Sasuke almost smiled.

"You know that if you would have told him that he would have shipped you off to the big house and you would have never seen him again," Sasuke interjected. Gaara turned to glare heatedly at him.

"You stay out of this!" Gaara growled. Naruto stood from the bed and looked over to Sasuke who just looked at the two of them dispassionately.

"No, I want to know what he has to do with anything. And I want to know the truth Gaara, I think I deserve that much," Naruto said heatedly. Gaara turned towards the blond and his face softened into a mask of indifference, his eyes belying the sorrow within his heart.

"I can tell you what I have to do with everything," Sasuke said haughtily. Gaara snarled at him and Sasuke just shrugged. "Fine, but I'm correcting you when you fuck me over."

"Just shut the hell up!" Gaara almost bellowed. Turning towards Naruto he frowned. "I will tell you, but we can't do this now. The police will be here soon, and we really can't be here when they do."

"Of course we can't. We wouldn't want to be caught red handed in the murders of six people, now would we?" Naruto nearly spat. Gaara's face fell for a split second before he caught himself and turned towards the Uchiha.

"Get the bleach from the bathroom and start spreading it around in there. Get all the surfaces. I'll grab the second bottle from the closet, when you're done in there help me in the front room," Gaara commanded and Sasuke nodded. Standing from his position on the floor Sasuke glanced back at the unhappy pair and almost let out a triumphant yell, there would be no Gaara and Naruto after this, especially after Gaara finally let the cat out of the bag as to his other life.

Moving quickly to the bathroom, Sasuke grimaced as he came face to face with the body of one of the men. He was laid in the tub with part of the top of his head missing, a smashed in nose and a bullet wound to the chest. Sasuke swallowed a bit of bile and dug around in the cabinets for the bottle of bleach. Having found the bottle he plugged a sink, filled it with bleach and soaked a towel. Then he wiped down all the surfaces in the bathroom covered in blood and then doused them in bleach. Taking one final look at the man in the tub, Sasuke dashed out of the bathroom to help Gaara take care of the next room.

Together they doused the entire hotel room in bleach. Gaara commanded Sasuke to gather up all of his and Naruto's belongs and the Uchiha scowled, but followed the red head's orders. Packing everything away into the suitcases took almost longer than Sasuke thought possible, but he did it as quick as he could. Gaara meanwhile, had started to spray everything in the hotel suite with a mixture of bleach and ammonia, trying to kill every bit of DNA evidence he could. Together Sasuke and Gaara grabbed the luggage and the blond and made their way down the fire escape just as the police made their way into the suite.

"Mon Dieu!" was all Sasuke heard as he and Gaara dragged Naruto and several bags of luggage off the fire escape, and down the back alleys of Paris.

The three men finally came to a stop in the seedy underbelly of the romantic capital of the world. Rats scuttled down the streets which were filled with some vile stinking substance. The buildings were worn down and Sasuke noted that there were burlesques, whorehouses and even what looked to be opium dens lining the streets. Gaara pulled them into a very disreputable looking building and Sasuke was amazed that the red head even knew where they were. Half naked women and men were all over the foyer and the three men headed towards the greasy counter.

"We need a room," Gaara told the clerk. The man behind the desk eyeballed the three of them and then smirked.

"Sure thing sweetheart," he said in broken English before turning and grabbing a key. "You pay when you leave."

Gaara nodded and dragged the other two away. They went up a tiny staircase and down a crowded hallway before coming to their door. Sasuke just looked around the place like it was going to give him an infectious disease. He entered the room, dropped the bags he had been carrying and sat on the floor, trying not to touch anything.

"God this place is disgusting," he muttered and instantly Gaara's death gaze was upon him. Slowly the red head advanced upon him and Sasuke found himself fighting to not cower in fear.

"Would you rather we go to some upscale joint and get caught?" Gaara hissed. Sasuke quickly shook his head. "I thought so. Now keep your god damned mouth shut!"

Sasuke cowered under the full brunt of Gaara's wrath before Naruto spoke.

"Could you please explain this all now?" the blond asked in a tired voice. It seemed to Sasuke that the very energy that was Naruto had been sucked out through the unfolding events. While Sasuke felt a pang of guilt somewhere in the recesses of his heart, he was more concerned with the fact that he would be the one in Gaara's bed and then heart after this. Gaara was looking steadily at the blond and seemed to have picked up the same things Sasuke had. He gestured for Naruto to sit down.

"This could take a while," Gaara warned the blond. Naruto let out a mirthless laugh.

"I don't think that matters right now," was the blond's reply. Gaara nodded and started pacing in the room.

"Do you remember how I told you that I killed my uncle when I was six?" Gaara asked and Naruto nodded. "And I told you I went to a mental facility?" Naruto nodded again. "That's not entirely true."

"Wow, he certainly didn't see that coming," Sasuke muttered sarcastically under his breath. Gaara glared at him again and Sasuke shut his mouth.

"After I had accidentally killed my uncle, my father did ship me away, but he sent me to a man named Shukaku," Gaara said, clearly not liking what he was remembering as he paced the floor quicker. "Shukaku was well known in the underworld for training world class hitmen and assassins. Apparently, my father had wanted me to kill my uncle. It seemed that he had grand plans for me. He wanted me to become something he could loathe completely; he wanted me to truly be the monster he envisioned me as: the Sandman. So he sent me away to Shukaku. I was trained for six years and gradually perfected my way of killing. I killed who I was told and was given air tight excuses as to my whereabouts. When I turned sixteen I killed Shukaku and started to do things my way. My father had died three years earlier in a freak accident; apparently someone had poisoned his wine.

"When I took over my own fate it seemed as though I couldn't stop killing. As much as it killed me to be doing what my father had forced upon me, I found that I rather liked taking the lives of other people. It made me feel as if I was someone, that I mattered. So I decided to kill the people in this world that deserve to die. I started to kill those that took advantage of those less privileged than themselves, those who killed innocents, and those who abused the people they should be helping. In my own way I was trying to be the father that I never had. I wanted to help people, since no one had helped me," Gaara explained. He looked over at Naruto and saw the blond nod his head.

"I see," was all that the blond said in response. He then pointed a finger at Sasuke, who gave him an offended look. "What about him?"

Gaara looked at Sasuke and Sasuke swore he saw affection cross those pools of emerald green before they hardened and Gaara looked away. Sasuke just looked at the red head, knowing that this was going to be harder for him than his own past had been to reveal.

Taking a deep breath, Sasuke watched as Gaara revealed his secret. "Sasuke was that boyfriend I told you about."

"You mean the bastard who left you for selfish reasons and then raped you?" Naruto asked, giving Sasuke a cold stare. Sasuke snarled.

"I didn't rape him you little idiot," Sasuke snarled. "How could I? I'm the one who got fucked!"

Silence echoed in the room and it seemed as if someone had sucked all the air out of the room. Sasuke was panting with fury, tired of being slandered thusly, Naruto was shell shocked from the information he had just received and Gaara stood stock still, looking anywhere but the blond.

"Is this true?" Naruto asked after a few moments silence, tears shimmered in his eyes but he refused to let them fall. The blond looked at Gaara's stiff back, but received no answer.

"Of course it's true, why the hell would I lie?" Sasuke snapped. Naruto turned furious tear filled eyes to the Uchiha, who for the first time in his life feared what Naruto would do.

"Because you're a son of a bitch, that's why Sasuke. You don't fucking care about anything unless it gets you what you want. You're obsessed with him!" Naruto shouted. Sasuke growled.

"I love him! I'd do anything to have him back. You're the little bitch who's throwing him away! I'm merely going to pick up the pieces!" Sasuke shouted back.

"You're fucking lying! You'd do anything to get your hooks into **my** HUSBAND you fucking whore!" Naruto shouted back, pissed off by Sasuke's gall.

"I'm not a fucking whore you cock sucker! And I don't need to lie! It's the fucking truth!" Sasuke shouted, getting into Naruto's face.

"Of course you're lying to fudge packer! You'd never bend over for anyone!" Naruto shouted, pushing Sasuke's chest, causing him to stumble back a step.

"I bent over for him! I'd do anything for him you slut!" Sasuke shouted back, pushing Naruto back onto the bed. The blond glared up at the Uchiha before Gaara put a hand on their shoulders.

"Naruto calm down, Sasuke sit back down and let me finish," Gaara said deadly calm. Sasuke pouted but did as he was told and Naruto just glared at him, his malice for the Uchiha unbridled.

"My past with Sasuke is almost the most complicated thing I've ever dealt with in my life," Gaara started, looking at Sasuke as his eyes saw far into the past. "I met him on a job in Germany. Through a bizarre set of circumstances we ended up locked in a small closet together with no option but to deal with one another and work together to get free. It was a tense encounter and the stakes were high, if we didn't get out then we'd both be killed or caught. In no time we were free and leaving the building in a flaming inferno. We split up and then ran into one another three weeks later in Belfast.

"In Belfast we talked. He talked about his family and hate for his brother, and I talked about my situation. As the night wore on, and we both were more than a little tipsy, he kissed me and then passed out. The morning wasn't awkward, for when I woke he was already gone. It was a month before our next encounter, and when we did meet sparks flew. I dragged him away from the party we had run into each other at, took him to my hotel room and then ravished him until morning. What Sasuke said about bottoming to me was true; I've never bent over for anyone, even him.

"As time wore on and we kept meeting, our affair grew quite heated. I was inadvertently warming up to him and he had no leads on his brother and thusly was open to an emotional connection. We agreed to meet in Hong Kong exactly one year ago, but Sasuke never showed up. When next I saw him it was a complete accident. I asked him why he didn't come and he simply said that he was close to finding Itachi and didn't have time to deal with me and my attachment. Of course I was broken hearted. I had been prepared to give him anything and he didn't even care. So I left and hunted down the one person who I know would help me get revenge. You said it yourself Naruto, Itachi was easier to find than Sasuke."

Both Sasuke and Naruto looked at Gaara in astonishment, but it was Naruto who spoke. "What did you do Gaara?"

"I talked to him," Gaara said and moved away from the blond and Uchiha. "Itachi knew that Sasuke would get to him eventually, and he wanted to do something about it. I told him I had some connections to some very good assassins, but he just shook his head.

"'Sasuke's going to kill me with a passion,' was what he said. I only nodded. 'He hates me after all. So I want him to die the same way.'

"He looked right at me and I couldn't turn away. 'He's hurt you deeply, and you want to get back at him, don't you?'

"I could only nod. 'Then when I die by Sasuke's hand, I want **you** to hunt him down and kill him. It's only fair that he dies the same way that I will, by a passionate killer.'"

Sasuke jumped up at pointed a finger at Gaara, his hand shaking. "You! You're the one who told me about the assassin! But what about those guys back there? Is there someone else after me?"

Gaara shook his head. "No. I hired them. For as much as I hate you Sasuke, I can't deny that I can't kill you anymore. But I'm afraid you either have to die, or look like I'm attempting to kill you, or I have to pay the price. You're brother was a smart man. I didn't read the stipulations of the contract with him until well after I signed them."

Sasuke collapsed to the floor, his head down. He couldn't believe it. The man he loved was the man hired by his brother to kill him. The world worked in ironic ways.

"Jesus Christ," Naruto whispered before addressing the other two occupants in the room. "This is so fucked up. I mean, you two were involved, Gaara's been hired to kill you Sasuke, I'm married to the fucking Sandman, and Sasuke's trying to steal my husband away from me."

Sasuke and Gaara just watched as the blond ran his hands through his hair and rubbed the back of his neck. Sasuke wondered what was running through that blond head of his. Naruto turned to look at Gaara.

"I need some time to think," he said. "Meet me in three hours at the Seine by the Concorde."

Then the blond left the seedy room. Gaara collapsed on the bed and lay there, face buried in the soiled sheets. Sasuke could only look at the red head.

"Now what?" the Uchiha asked.

"Now we wait," Gaara replied, turning his head to the side so that Sasuke could understand him.

"Yeah, but what will happen to us?" Sasuke asked. Gaara sighed.

"If Naruto still wants to turn us both in we're running for it. I'll divorce him, change my name, my face, fingerprints, the works, and together we can go someplace quiet and unobtrusive and settle down," Gaara said. "But, if Naruto decides that he's willing to look past all my faults and stay with me and keep my secret, I can't vouch for your safety Sasuke."

Silently Sasuke prayed that Naruto would choose the first option.


	14. The end

**If:** Well, this is the end people. Depending on what you all think it will either end here, or there will be an epilogue, so be sure to tell me if you want it to end here or not! Thank you to all the people who have read this story, and special thanks to those of you who were nice enough to review! It means a lot to me that you liked my story.

**Warnings:** Angst!

**Review replies:** HanChan- Yes, everything has been explained! I tried not to leave any plot holes in this story, so all was explained! And you'll just have to read and find out what Naruto is going to do! Thank you for the review!

* * *

Naruto aimlessly wandered the streets of Paris. All around him happy people chatted and laughed while he himself walked with an oppressive black cloud hanging over his head. Of all the places that this had to happen, Paris was definitely not the place he wanted it to happen in. Paris was happy, people came to Paris for love and the beauty, and here he was wallowing in misery as if he had been in Detroit. God forbid he have some no strings attached happiness in his life. Oh no, God played some perfectly wonderful on the poor blond. His husband was the Sandman. Gaara, his sometimes too perfectly hopeless Gaara was the fucking Sandman. AND he had dated his ex. Though it seemed more like they had talked and fucked more than been involved… but really, what was the difference? And to top it all off Gaara was hired by Itachi to kill Sasuke after Sasuke killed him. What the hell? It was all so completely baffling and poor Naruto was getting a headache from it all.

In the end, it all came down to him. Naruto didn't like the pressure. On one hand, he could say he was going to take them both in, which is what he should be doing and not mulling the whole thing over, but Naruto didn't like that idea. If… since Gaara was the Sandman, and Sasuke was pretty cunning, they'd probably team up, escape him, and he'd never find them again. It seemed like a good idea for all of ten seconds. Naruto came to the realization that if he did that, they would escape and Naruto would never see Gaara again. And to top it all, Gaara would probably pick up Sasuke again, just like a bad habit. The red head would be smart enough to change his name, his appearance, his fingerprints, and even his teeth. There would be no way that anyone would be able to find Sabakuno Gaara if Naruto said he was going to turn them both in to the authorities. The only thing that Naruto had on Gaara was a confession, and really, he would prefer some hard evidence. He could be perceived as biased, or not-credible, and it would all go out the window, if they even found Gaara.

On the other hand, he could say that he didn't care that Gaara was the Sandman, and that he wouldn't turn him in. The only problem with that was that it went against everything Naruto had ever stood for, that he really **wasn't** ok with it, and Gaara would probably kill Sasuke. None of that was really appealing to the blond FBI agent. He loved Gaara, there was no way he could deny that, but he couldn't say that he was ok with the red head being the Sandman, because he wasn't. Naruto was a straight-laced man. He went by the book, and he didn't stray from his path. He had morals and principles and they were the most important things in his life… other than Gaara. Therein lay the problem. Naruto was torn the two things he valued the most: his principles and his husband.

Sighing in frustration, Naruto didn't notice that he had wandered into a rough neighborhood and was heading straight for an occupant of said neighborhood. With an 'oof' of surprise Naruto fell to the ground after bumping into the solid wall that was the man he had run into. Looking up and opening his mouth to apologize, Naruto could only point and work his mouth without any sound coming out. The man, who narrowed his one eye, the other being covered by a black headband, advanced on the blond menacingly. Naruto scooted backwards but found that a man had come up behind him, cornering him. Looking up and behind himself, his eyes went wide as he took in the bandaged face of the other man. The man in front of him grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him up off the ground.

"You must be an American," the man said with a heavy French accent. "Only an American would disturb the peace and not apologize for it."

"What should we do with him?" the other man asked his English void of any accent. Naruto nervously looked between the two dangerous men that he had recognized from some files at the FBI. These two were both killers, dangerous and on the lam. The first one, with one eye, was none other than "Sharingan" Kakashi. Infamous for forgery, robbery and murder, it was said he could copy anything and disappear into any crowd thanks to his amazing abilities. He had been on the lam for years, with no leads having been found, and even the lead investigator from INTERPOL having gone missing. The other man was unmistakably Momichi Zabuza. He was known as the "Devil" of the British Isles. He had murdered many people for money, a powerful mercenary who had disappeared a few years ago after a village that he had been hiding in had revolted against the man who had hired him.

"Maybe we should teach him to look where he's going," Zabuza told Kakashi, the other nodding lazily. Naruto knew that the shit had hit the fan and idly wondered if Gaara would search for him when he didn't show up for their meeting in a few hours.

"I think you might just be on to something Zabuza," Kakashi replied after a moment of silence. He closed his eye and smiled from beneath his mask. Naruto closed his eyes and tensed for the oncoming beating.

"Kakashi!" someone shouted loudly and extremely boisterously. Naruto cracked an eye open and caught Kakashi's flinch as his name was called.

"… How does he know?" Zabuza asked the sighing Kakashi.

"I don't know, but maybe if we ignore him he'll go away…" Kakashi remarked and prepared to hit Naruto with his fist. Zabuza opened his mouth to retort but was cut off.

"Kakashi! What have I told you about beating up random strangers?!" the yell came from much closer than Naruto was expecting and he flinched at the loudness, bringing a hand up to cover his ear. Kakashi, for his part, acted as if he had only just noticed the other man holding his arm.

"Ah, Gai, I didn't hear you…" he said coolly. Naruto just looked between the two of them. One with gray hair sticking out in all directions, the other with a pristine bowl cut of shining black hair. Naruto could only blink before he recognized the man's now scowling face.

"Argh! That's so typically cool of you with that 'hip' attitude!" Gai shouted at Kakashi who promptly dropped Naruto and brought a finger up to his ear. "That modern attitude always keeps you from noticing anything that your wonderfully youthful rival does! One of these days I will beat you and that hip and modern attitude of yours! For I am Maito Gai, the beautiful green beast and I shall not rest until I complete my mission!..."

As Gai continued his impassioned speech Kakashi's eye rolled skyward and his posture slumped as if this were a daily occurrence. Zabuza, for his part had started to slowly slink away as Gai's gesticulations became more fervent as he became more passionate. Naruto could only watch in slight horror as the former INTERPOL official just rambled on about 'youth' and 'rivals' to his former prey, Sharingan Kakashi.

After what seemed like forever later, even though it was only a minute or two, Kakashi finally turned to look at the "beautiful green beast," what was indeed dressed all in green. Putting a finger to his mask covered lips, Kakashi gestured for the other man to calm down and be quiet. Gradually Gai calmed down. Kakashi patted him on the shoulder and walked across the street and into a building. Gai only watched as Kakashi left and Naruto could only watch Gai.

"You're Maito Gai," Naruto said, standing up and brushing himself off. He looked behind himself and noted that Zabuza was long gone. Gai looked at him before smiling broadly at the blond.

"Indeed I am! Who are you, to know who I am?" Gai asked and Naruto blinked at the strange phrasing of the question.

"My name is Sabakuno Naruto, FBI," Naruto said. Gai stiffened at the FBI and Naruto was sure that the bowl hair cut man wished that Kakashi was still around to kick the crap out of the blond. "I'm not here looking for you or Sharingan Kakashi. I'm here with my own serial killer…"

Gai tilted his head and seemed to really look at Naruto as the blond once again let his mind run to Gaara before shaking his head. Gai smiled brightly at him again and gave him a thumbs up, Naruto blinked as Gai's teeth nearly blinded him with their magnificent shine.

"Why don't you come inside our apartment for a while Naruto, you look like you could use some time to think," Gai said almost calmly. Naruto nodded and together the two of them crossed the street and entered the same building that Kakashi entered. Gai cheerfully talked about what was going on in France and Paris specifically and Naruto listened in rapt silence. As Gai put his key in his apartment door and opened the door, a cloud of black smoke blew out of the apartment. Choking and coughing on the smoke Gai ducked into the room and pulled out a blackened Kakashi.

"…" Kakashi seemed to be speechless as Gai frowned and ducked back into the apartment. Naruto and Kakashi eyed each other suspiciously.

"Sorry for running into you earlier," Naruto apologized, not looking at the taller and older man. Kakashi didn't acknowledge his apology.

"What serial killer are you tracking?" Kakashi asked, seeming uninterested. Naruto scratched the back of his neck.

"The Sandman and Uchiha Sasuke," Naruto replied. Kakashi just shrugged but looked to the door as Gai dashed out of the smoke filled apartment.

"Rival!" Gai shouted as the soot covered man stomped up to the blackened Kakashi. "What have I told you about trying to cook?!"

"… Don't?" Kakashi asked, looking off into the distance. Naruto couldn't help but stare at two as Gai went off on another rant filled with flowery language, vivid imagery and wildly unbelievable circumstances. Kakashi seemed to not be paying the slightest bit of attention, but the slightest quirk of his lips proved otherwise. Naruto found it all quite strange and he was certainly surprised when Kakashi reached out and covered a flailing Gai's mouth with his hand.

"I get the point," Kakashi said. Gai frowned and looked like he wanted to rip Kakashi's hand off his mouth and launch into another speech, but one look from the grey haired man and he just shook his head. Gently prying the hand from his mouth, Gai turned to Naruto and smiled widely.

"Since our apartment seems to be incapacitated at the moment, would you care to join us for lunch?" Gai asked. Kakashi rolled his eye.

"I'm going for a walk," he said and started off down the hallway. Gai seemed sad for a moment, but then smiled at Naruto again.

"Or, just me," Gai amended. Naruto smiled back at the eccentric man.

"Sure," he replied. Together the two of them wandered back into the main part of Paris. Finding a small café at which to sit, the two settled into comfortable small talk before Naruto couldn't hold his questions back any more.

"Gai… why did you leave INTERPOL? And why are you living with Sharingan Kakashi?" Naruto asked after a sip of coffee. Gai's smiled faded and his face took on a serious tone.

"It's a long story… but really, I just couldn't keep hunting him down," Gai said, staring into his cup of coffee. "I loved my job it was terribly addictive and kept me feeling young and alive! Unfortunately, I found out that Kakashi was the Sharingan, and I just couldn't keep doing my job if it meant turning him in."

"Why? I mean… he's a felon and he probably deserves to be locked up," Naruto pushed. Gai looked up at the sky forlornly.

"It's true, he probably does deserve to be locked up for a very long time, but he's my eternal rival, I've always been trying to beat him, and the fact that I could scares me," Gai replied.

Naruto frowned at the suddenly melancholic man across from him. "It could always be worse. I married the man I've been sworn to turn in."

Gai looked at the boy across from him. Sighing, he reached out and patted Naruto on the shoulder.

"Why do you think I left? I couldn't leave Kakashi, not even if I tried. He may be a killer, and he may drive me up a wall and occasionally he tries to kill me with his cooking, but I love him just the same," Gai confessed. Naruto just looked at the bowl hair cut man for a moment, absorbing the information just imparted to him.

"How did you choose?" Naruto asked. Gai put a hand to his chin and his face contorted into an overly thoughtful pose.

"I just asked myself which I couldn't live without: my job, or Kakashi!" Gai said with a grin on his face. Naruto couldn't help but smile back at the other man a smile certainly fit him better than his previous seriousness.

"Thanks Gai, for everything," Naruto said, standing and leaving some money on the table.

"Good luck Naruto," Gai replied, shaking Naruto's hand. "Feel free to visit if you're ever in Paris and willing to not turn my boyfriend in."

Naruto chuckled and waved as he turned and started towards the meeting place he had told Gaara to meet him at.

* * *

Gaara was pacing the sidewalk on the bank of the river waiting for Naruto to come back. Sasuke was sitting on the guardrail swinging his legs idly. He had a good feeling about this. Naruto would never be able to just let Gaara go. He had strong principles and Sasuke was damn sure that he'd finally get what he wanted.

Gaara was nervous. He desperately wanted to believe that Naruto would choose him over his job, but even he was skeptical that the blond could leave all that behind for him. Gaara was fully prepared to just run away from it all. He wasn't quite sure what he'd do about Sasuke, but he was sure he'd think of something. Sasuke would have to die if Naruto shoes Gaara, but if he didn't maybe Gaara really would take Sasuke with him. The Uchiha may annoy him to no end, but that was just because he was a possessive bastard and Gaara was with someone else. But if Gaara were free…

Gaara tried to imagine it. The Uchiha and he would be safe in some little village in Russia, or Japan or even in Romania. They would have hidden their identities, and no one would know. Naruto wouldn't be able to track them down, and neither would Itachi's subordinates. They would have a little home, a little money, every day jobs and some hot sex. But as Gaara imagined, he knew there would be no love. Sasuke and he weren't built for a long relationship. Sure they had chemistry, they always would, but after Sasuke tossed him carelessly to the side for a chance at finding his brother, Gaara could never love him. He would always care about the Uchiha, but he could never love him.

With this in mind he watched as Sasuke got off the guardrail and started to walk towards him. With a heavy heart, Gaara took his handgun out of the back of his jeans and pointed it at the Uchiha.

"Sorry Sasuke, but I'm afraid I can't let you live," Gaara said and coolly pulled the trigger. He would never be able to love Sasuke, and Naruto would never be able to stay with him, especially not after this. It hurt him to know this, and it hurt even more to know that even if Naruto would have wanted to stay with him he would have sent him to jail for his crimes. There would be no happy ending for him, and that was what hurt the most. He could hear footsteps approaching and turned to see Naruto running towards him, tears falling from his blue eyes. Gaara could only look at him with all the love in his heart and all the sorrow his knowledge gave him. He raised his gun and placed it by his heart. Maybe if he killed himself the pain would stop and Naruto would be able to live it peace…

* * *

Naruto could only watch in horror as Gaara lifted a handgun and aimed straight at Sasuke. Glancing at the Uchiha out of the corner of his eyes he shot Sasuke right between the eyes. The Uchiha fell backwards in a flurry of blood and limbs and crumpled to the ground in a sickening thud. Naruto couldn't scream his eyes wide in shock and horror.

_It should have been raining_, he idly thought as he gazed at the scene before him. It was too much to take in; he couldn't begin to process the feelings running through him. It had happened so quickly. One moment he was floating on cloud nine, in Paris with his new husband of one day, the next he was staring down at the lifeless body of his ex-best friend as his husband stood over the cooling corpse, gun in hand. It was surreal. He couldn't remember how he had gotten here, what had led to this disastrous consequence. All he had been doing was his job. He had been doing his job, and had inadvertently fallen in love with the man he had been watching, the man who had murdered his old friend.

His hands were shaking, he could barely breathe, and his stomach was rolling. All he could see were the two men covered in blood before him. One was unspeakably cold and the other was dead.

His husband turned to look at him, his beautiful green eyes brimming with tears. He could see every emotion that passed through those eyes: the guilt, the sorrow, the intense love. It left him speechless. Yet he couldn't do anything as the man he loved more than life lifted the gun and pressed it to his chest and pulled the trigger.


	15. Epilogue

The blaring of sirens could barely be heard through the fogginess of Naruto's mind

The blaring of sirens could barely be heard through the fogginess of Naruto's mind. Apparently someone had called the cops and paramedics when the first shot had rung out in the still air. Naruto was rooted to the spot as the police and paramedics quickly arrived and started to assess the situation. Gaara was being carefully picked up and put on a cart. The paramedics started to push him to the ambulance and began to put him in. The sudden movement of his husband snapped Naruto out of his funk. Running over to the ambulance and disregarding the policemen that were trying to talk to him, Naruto finally got to Gaara.

One of the paramedics put a hand to his chest. "Je suis désolé mais vous ne pouvez pas venir." (1)

"I'm his husband!" Naruto shouted, pointing to the ring on his finger. The paramedics looked at each other and just shrugged. They finished pushing Gaara into the vehicle and allowed Naruto to get in after them. The doors slammed shut and they were off.

Naruto looked at the paler than usual face of Gaara and desperately wanted to grab his hand, but the paramedics were frantically trying to keep the red head alive. There was blood everywhere and the paramedics had to keep switching cloths to soak up the blood. Naruto desperately wanted to know if his husband would live, but he didn't speak a word of French. So he had to wait and wring his hands as they sped towards the hospital. He already knew that Sasuke was dead; there was no way he could have survived. He couldn't help but wonder what had triggered Gaara to shoot the Uchiha, but as of now he wasn't sure he'd even be able to ask the red headed killer.

Naruto knew that shots to the heart were fatal. He also knew that there may be one spot around the heart that wasn't. He hoped that Gaara had missed, but he knew that at point blank range there was no way that he would. There was a chance that Gaara hadn't shot himself in the heart, Naruto hadn't been close enough to say for sure, and his eyes had been cloudy with tears, but Naruto was pretty sure that his husband had just committed suicide.

As they arrived at the hospital, Gaara was whisked away and Naruto was confronted by doctors, nurses and policemen, all asking him a million questions at the same time and in French. Naruto could only gape at them and try to say that he didn't speak French. After a while of fumbling with not understanding one another, one of the police officers seemed to radio for help. Leaving Naruto alone for a while to ponder the hospital forms before him, the staff went back to whatever they had been doing. The police officers hung around for a while until a man in a suit showed up. The police officer who had used his radio greeted the man and they seemed to exchange a few words before the man in the suit approached Naruto.

"Ah, hello monsieur, my name is Tichelli and I work with the police on matters with Englishmen," the man named Tichelli said. Naruto nodded his head in understanding. "Could you tell me your name monsieur?"

"My name is Naruto Sabakuno," Naruto replied. "I hate to sound impertinent, but could you help me fill out these papers before I answer the police's questions?"

"Let me ask the policeman in charge if that is alright," Tichelli replied. Naruto nodded once again. Tichelli turned to one of the policemen and after a brief exchange turned back to Naruto and nodded.

The Frenchman sat next to the blond and took the pile of papers. Pulling out an ornate pen he addressed Naruto again. "Why don't I read you the questions Monsieur Sabakuno. I'll write down the answers, sine they'll probably want them in French."

"Alright," Naruto replied. Half an hour later they were finally through the paperwork. Naruto was still none the wiser as to Gaara's condition and couldn't help but wonder if the red head was even among the living.

"Monsieur Sabakuno, the police would like to know if you know what happened," Tichelli asked Naruto, and the blond snapped out of his reverie and worry.

"All I saw was the two of them get shot," Naruto replied unthinkingly. "I'm not sure what happened before then, but that's what I saw."

Tichelli translated this to the police and the police replied with another question. Tichelli nodded and turned once more to Naruto.

"Do you know who shot them?" Tichelli asked. Naruto paused as if finally realizing that he had already bent the truth in regards as to what he had seen.

"I…" Naruto started to say but was interrupted by a doctor who had just rushed over to them. Jumping to his feet Naruto could only wait for Tichelli to translate what the doctor was saying to him.

"He says that your husband's wound is very dangerous. It's close to his heart, but seems to have not punctured it. The problem currently lies in the bones that have been shattered and the veins that have been ruptured," Tichelli cautiously translated. Naruto's heart thundered in his chest. "The doctors say that he's still in critical condition and they're still not sure if he will make it, but that things are looking better thanks to the bone fragments missing major arteries and the heart proper."

Naruto collapsed into his chair at hearing this and held his head in his hands, tears running freely down his face. As the police conversed and Tichelli thanked the doctor Naruto quietly passed out from exhaustion and worry.

* * *

When Naruto finally awoke he blinked groggily before snapping into a sitting position. He looked around the white room frantically trying to figure out where he was. He needed to find Gaara and see if he was alright. He needed to know if he was alive. He needed to get out of this bed and find the man that had turned his life upside down, who he was still hopelessly in love with. Scrambling out of the hospital bed, he raced to the white curtain blocking the other occupant in the room from his view and pulled it away. On the bed was a deathly pale Gaara. There were tubes hooked up to him and he was covered in bandages, but he was alive, for now at least. Naruto felt fresh tears run down his face and he ran to his husband's side. Taking that cold hand into his own hand, Naruto collapsed at the side of the red head's bed and cried.

After what seemed like forever, Naruto finally looked up at the man he loved more than life itself. Gaara's green eyes stared right back at him.

"Gaara!" Naruto shouted and jumped to his feet, kissing all over the red head's face, and trying greatly not to hug the injured man. Gaara just laid there, his eyes blank and his face unresponsive and let Naruto do as he pleased. Naruto backed away after finally getting a handle on his emotions.

"I can't believe you're alive," Naruto whispered, holding on to Gaara's hand as tight as he dared.

"You're not the only one who's surprised," Gaara mumbled, but Naruto heard him perfectly clear. The smile that had been on the blond's face disappeared and a frown replaced it.

"Did you really want to die?" Naruto asked hesitantly. A part of him really didn't want to know the answer, but a majority needed to know.

"I didn't want to live when you rejected me," Gaara said after a moment of silence. Naruto could only gape at his husband.

"Who's to say I would?" Naruto asked breathily. Gaara looked away from him and out the window.

"You did," Gaara said. Naruto's frown deepened. "A while ago I asked you what you would do if I were the Sandman and you said you would arrest me. No matter how much you loved me you would still turn me in."

Naruto could only stare at the red headed man, who was more a boy at this moment, lying on the bed. Naruto remembered saying that. It's true, at that time he would have turned Gaara in. But then Naruto had met Gai, and he had thought at that moment that maybe he could let Gaara go. Now… after such a near miss at losing the one person that completed him, Naruto wanted to say that he was definitely going to keep Gaara out of jail, but he couldn't. Gaara had killed Sasuke. He had coldly shot the Uchiha as if it were nothing. That was something Naruto wasn't sure he could just let go.

"I had hoped that my dying would lift some of that burden from you. With me out of the way you wouldn't have to pretend to contemplate what to choose. You would be able to live with your ideals and morals intact, even if it was with a broken heart. I know you would have eventually moved on if I were to die," Gaara said softly and it broke Naruto's heart. It made it that much worse to know that he still wasn't sure if he could choose this wonderful man over his job.

"I know it doesn't matter, but I realized something while hovering between life and death. I love you, and if you had chosen me there would have been a way out. Everyone knows Sasuke's been stalking me, and it is plausible that he would wear a red wig to cover up who he really was. There was a black hair at the Glease murder scene, and if you dig deep enough you could pull one from the scene in India. The thing that would truly convince them though would be the blankets in the hotel room. Under the man in the tub are some bloodstained sheets that are covered in Sasuke's blood. For all they know, the room could have been rented out to him which points the murders of those six people squarely at him. The last bit would be him trying to kill me. A case could be made that Sasuke wasn't happy that I had married you and thus had decided that if he couldn't have me than no one could," Gaara said. Naruto could only stare in amazement at the forethought that had gone into this.

The door opened and in walked a doctor, Tichelli and two policemen. Tichelli smiled at Naruto and the blond tried his hardest to smile back.

"C'est bon voir que vous êtes éveillé M Sabakuno," the doctor said to Gaara (2). The red head nodded.

"Merci," Gaara responded. Naruto blinked at the two of them before his attention was drawn to Tichelli.

"Are you ready to tell us what happened now, Monsieur Sabakuno?"

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1: "I am sorry but you can not come."

2: "It is good to see that you have awakened Mr Sabakuno"

**If: **Well, that's it. I hope that you all have enjoyed Sandman, and I hope the epilogue isn't a total bust, but I wanted it to end this way, nice and open-ended. You, the readers, can decide if Naruto chooses Gaara or his job. Its been a long haul, and I'm extremely grateful to all the wonderful people who have read, and especially those who reviewed!

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